Mariel Garza, editorials editor at The Los Angeles Times, has resigned to protest the paper’s decision to cancel a presidential endorsement at the behest of its owner.
The news comes a day after it was revealed that biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong intervened to prevent the paper from publishing an expected endorsement of Kamala Harris for president.
“A brave decision by a highly ethical editor and terrific boss,” wrote Karin Klein, a former member of the paper’s editorial board, in sharing the news in a Facebook group populated by current and former Times staffers.
Garza confirmed her departure in a text message to The Standard. In an interview with Columbia Journalism Review, she said she resigned “to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent.”
In her resignation letter, Garza wrote of the non-endorsement, “It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist. How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger — who we previously endorsed for the US Senate?”
A Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Garza’s resignation. Asked about the reasoning behind the non-endorsement, she said via email, “We do not comment on internal discussions or decisions about editorials or endorsements.”
Soon-Shiong, who bought the Times in 2018, later addressed the controversy on X, saying that the 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.”
“In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years,” Soon-Shiong wrote. “Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”
He did not deny blocking the paper from endorsing Harris.
In a statement Wednesday evening, the newsroom’s union leadership said they were “deeply concerned” by Soon-Shiong’s decision to stop the planned endorsement.
“We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse,” the Los Angeles Times Guild leaders said. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members. The Los Angeles Times Guild stands with our members who have always worked diligently to protect the integrity of our newsroom.”