The Los Angeles Times editorial board will stop writing about President-elect Donald Trump on its editorial page, the newspaper's owner said Friday.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the paper, has argued that moving the Times away from its liberal leanings and toward a more centric editorial is essential to its survival.
Soon-Shiong stoked outrage among some of Times readers and staff when he thwarted the endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the presential race against Trump. Close to 20,000 canceled their subscription after the move and several board members resigned.
"The only way you can survive is to not be an echo chamber of one side," he told the outlet in an interview. "And as long as I can see progress" in readership, "I'll continue to fund it, yes," he said, regarding his investment in the paper.
"But something has to change if all this is [being] considered a philanthropic trust. It's not. A sustainable business has to occur."
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos took a similar tactic when his paper declined to endorse either presential candidate. Soon-Shiong said he plans to add more conservative voices to his paper's opinion sections.
Those "who cancel [their] subscription should respect the fact that there may be two views on a certain point, and nobody has 100% the right view," Soon-Shiong said. "And it's really important for us [to] heal the nation. We've got to stop being so polarized."
Earlier in the month, longtime Los Angeles Times columnist Harry Litman said he was leaving the paper due to Soon-Shiong decision, saying, "I don't want to continue to work for a paper that is appeasing Trump and facilitating his assault on democratic rule for craven reasons."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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