Los Angeles Times employees say the paper’s billionaire owner is asking the editorial board to “take a break from writing about” President-elect Donald Trump, according to a report.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the physician and entrepreneur who bought the Times in 2018, has blasted the paper’s staff for its “interference” in editorial matters, which has become “more widespread than previously realized,” media reporter Oliver writes. Darcy. his status bulletin.
Soon-Shiong, who was born in South Africa, reportedly took “a number of previously unreported steps” designed to curb Trump-related comments.
Last week, the New York Times reported that Soon-Shiong blocked his newspaper from publishing an editorial arguing that the Senate should follow its traditional process to confirm cabinet picks rather than allow Trump to make recess appointments.
The editorial, which carried the title “Donald Trump’s cabinet selections are not normal. The Senate confirmation process should be,” did not take place, according to the New York Times.
But Soon-Shiong’s hands-on involvement in his paper’s editorial decisions has been “much broader in scope” than writing prominence, according to Status.
Terry Tang, executive editor of the LA Times, received a memo signed by “several members” of the opinion section who accuse their boss of “creating a new policy that prohibits editorials containing criticism of the president-elect if they are not presented side-by-side with another opinion piece representing the ‘contrary point of view,’” Darcy wrote in his newsletter.
“This new restriction, which appears to apply only to matters involving Trump and not to other officials or matters, has killed or indefinitely delayed numerous editorials that have been written and edited but remain unpublished,” it said. in the memorandum.
Soon-Shiong also reportedly “requested” the editorial board to email “the text of each editorial and the name of its writer” before publication — a move staff said raised “concerns about the board’s ability to to do his job without fear of retaliation”.
“The editorial board’s positions and content have been pre-censored before publication, and its arguments, titles and themes have been subjected to limits that did not exist before,” the memo said.
A spokesperson for the LA Times told Status: “Our management team is currently reviewing the concerns expressed in the letter.”
The Post has sought comment from the LA Times.
Earlier this month, Soon-Shiong revealed that he has been working “behind the scenes” to create a “bias meter” for every article published by the paper.
Soon-Shiong’s scheme prompted Harry Litman, a longtime legal columnist for the paper, to resign in protest. He accused the owner of “doing a favor” with Trump in a “shameful capitulation.”
Soon-Shiong made the announcement at the same time she confirmed the hiring of conservative commentator Scott Jennings to serve on the newspaper’s editorial board.
Soon-Shiong first vowed to flatten the left-leaning paper’s political slant in November.
“If we were to be honest with ourselves, our current panel of pundits veered too far to the left, which is fine, but I think in order to have balance, you also have to have someone who would cut right, and more importantly, someone who would wait. in the middle,” he said.
His pledge came despite backlash a month ago, when he blocked the Times editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thousands of readers canceled their subscriptions and urged others to boycott the company on social media. Several outraged members of the editorial board resigned.
Additional reporting by Taylor Herzlich
#Times #owner #Patrick #SoonShiong #tells #editorial #board #break #writing #Trump #report
Image Source : nypost.com