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Meddling for MAGA
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, has dismayed staffers as he curtails critical coverage of Donald Trump.
Oliver Darcy
December 16, 2024
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)
Patrick Soon-Shiong's meddling at the Los Angeles Times has grown more pervasive than previously realized.
The billionaire newspaper owner, who is desperately trying to appeal to the MAGA movement as Donald Trump prepares to take power, has taken a number of previously unreported steps to curtail the publication of opinion pieces critical of the president-elect, according to a memo that I obtained which was sent in the last few days to Executive Editor Terry Tang and signed by several members of the newspaper's Opinion section.
The staffers said they were notifying Tang, who oversees both the newsroom and Opinion section, of Soon-Shiong’s alarming actions because the newspaper’s ethics policy requires employees to report “anything that might cast a shadow on the Times’ reputation.”
“We understand that Dr. Soon-Shiong has a role in shaping the tone and direction of the editorial board and Opinion section, but we are still bound by the core values and ethics of journalism, including a duty to be transparent and act in service of the public,” the memo said. “We believe we have an obligation to report these under the ethics policy, which states that ‘the primary goal always should be to protect The Times’ integrity.’”
Most notably, the staffers said in the memo that Soon-Shiong has requested the newspaper's editorial board outright…
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