LA Times Columnist Resigns Over Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s ‘Shameful Capitulation’ to Trump | Video
Los Angeles Times columnist Harry Litman resigned in protest from the newspaper Thursday, over owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s “really shameful capitulation” to Donald Trump, he told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House.”
“Papers have such an important role to play now and in this country. Trump has captured the political arena, maybe the Supreme Court, and he’s going after now the FBI, potentially the military, and, really, they’re one of the few institutions to be able to stand up and push back,” he explained.
“And it’s in their finest tradition, and Trump has made clear he’ll go after them. And that’s an absolute five-alarm fire.”
Soon-Shiong decided to “curry favor with Trump,” he added, “And I just think this is not a time for balance when you have someone who’s not telling the truth on the other side.”
“And it’s a deep responsibility. And instead, I think they cowered and are worried about their personal holdings and just being threatened by Trump. And that’s a really shameful capitulation, I think. So, I just felt I couldn’t be a part of it and had to resign,” Litman concluded.
In a lengthy essay published on his Substack, Litman explained that his tenure at the newspaper spanned 15 years. He reiterated that his decision to resign is “a protest and visceral reaction against the conduct of the paper’s owner” who has “made several moves to force the paper, over the forceful objections of his staff, into a posture more sympathetic to Donald Trump.”
“Those moves can’t be defended as the sort of policy adjustment papers undergo from time to time, and that an owner, within limits, is entitled to influence. Given the existential stakes for our democracy that I believe Trump’s second term poses, and the evidence that Soon-Shiong is currying favor with the President-elect, they are repugnant and dangerous,” Litman wrote.
In October readers of the Times rebuked the paper’s decision to decline to endorse a political candidate ahead of the 2024 election. The editorial board was prepared to endorse Kamala Harris when Soon-Shiong shut them down.
Editorial page editor Mariel Garza resigned over the paper’s lack of endorsement and said, “The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make.” Garza also said that Soon-Shiong vetoed the editorial board’s decision to endorse Harris.
Soon-Shiong denied Garza’s allegation. “So many comments about the L.A. Times editorial board not providing a presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The editorial board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the positive and negative policies by each candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation.”
You can watch the clip from “Deadline: White House” in the video above.
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