The owner of the Los Angeles Times has blocked the paper from endorsing a candidate for president this year.
Last week, the LA Times published its electoral endorsements for the 2024 election. And while the paper noted in its first line that it is “no exaggeration to say this may be the most consequential election in a generation,” that was the only mention of the presidential race in its endorsements.
The paper’s editorial board, which has endorsed Democratic candidates in every presidential race since it first endorsed then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, was preparing to do so once again this election.
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File this under, “things are getting really weird”.Report
Another bio-tech billionaire trying to influence American elections. And legacy media wonder why no one trusts them.Report
You know, I just saw this tweet earlier today and everything:
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Only 12% of Republicans trust Fox News?
Really?Report
Maybe their definitions of “mass media” include more than Fox News.
In the future, I’ll assume that yours doesn’t.Report
So…do they?
Trust Fox News, I mean, at least more than 12%?Report
They might not even consider Fox “mass media”. Like, it’s outside of the mainstream and all.
Someone else on the twitter pointed out the Democratic bump when Trump got elected and then the crater during Biden’s term.
Which is also humorous.Report
That’s correct.
“Mass media” or similar terms only apply to media which is outside the MAGA epistemic bubble.Report
Then that explains the righties.
The Indies might be a thing to worry about but what is an Independent if not a Republican who still wants to get invited to the cool parties?Report
This very comment thread explains it.
People distrust media outlets for all sorts of different reasons.Report
I’m sure this is going to crush Harris’ chances in California. Oh no, Harris is still gonna crush Trump in California
The truth is that the billionaire owner doesn’t want to endorse Harris because something something pay their fair share in taxes hurts his fee fees but he is smart enough to realize his staff and readers will revolt if he states they should endorse Trump. So he mandated no endorsement.
All in all, another D- trollReport
She still has Dick Cheney’s endorsement.Report
Another D- troll.
Dick Cheney endorsing Harris does not make her a conservative. It means he has the wherewithal with recognize that Trump is a danger and disgrace and can put country above party and ideology.
You’re a clown.Report
You’re the guy yelling at a clown.Report
Sometimes telling clowns that we need to take something seriously is very important.Report
Is the Los Angeles Times endorsement one of those things that needs to be taken seriously or does it qualify as “other”?
Because I put it in “other”.Report
Legacy media WANT to be taken seriously and trusted. And there was a time when these endorsements mattered because legacy media were believed to have done serious analysis to arrive at the endorsement.
Endorsements – or lack there of when the reason is known as is the case here – are still important. But cowing like this makes them look weak – cowardly even – and further erodes trust.Report
As A.J. Liebling (great name for a journalist) once said, freedom of the press is for those who own one.Report
We don’t usually yell at you, JB, we usually laugh. . . . Oh, you meant someone else?Report
No, Dick Cheney’s endorsement doesn’t make her a conservative, but a lot of this stuff does: https://www.semafor.com/article/10/15/2024/no-matter-who-wins-the-country-is-moving-to-the-rightReport
This is the result of the GOP going full fascist, that any non-fascist conservatives stampede to the Democrats and change its center of gravity.
This is what happened in California after the collapse of the Republicans.
All the power at the state level is held by Democrats but most are not markedly liberal.
However, this doesn’t stop the state from accomplishing an actual liberal agenda.Report
I wonder if it will prevent a Harris administration (which seems increasingly unlikely) from accomplishing anything like an actual liberal agenda.Report
I think that depends on the House and to a lessor extent the senate.Report
Note though that Harris has not changed any of her positions and Liz Cheney is telling anti-abortion women that they can vote for Harris with a clear conscious because of the stakes and banning abortion is not worth it if the cost is Donald Trump.Report
I believe she’s changed some of her positions, but if that article is any indication, she’s running as a moderate conservative.Report
Most electable democrats would do so.Report
Leading Democrats like Biden, Harris, and Newsom are in the enter of political gravity of the Democratic party, and IMO, most Americans.
Doesn’t mean their positions are right, it just means the sort of policies that I would support (e.g. challenging the 2nd Amendment, universal free college, etc) are minority positions and I can’t blame any Democrat from not adopting them.Report
That’s a laudable stance- though, being a more centrist dem, I would say that.Report
So your theory is that a) it’s obviously not going to influence the election, and b) Soon-Shiong is blocking the endorsement to influence the election so that he won’t have to pay his “fair share” in taxes.
I’m beginning to suspect that you’re overestimating the epistemological value of seething resentment of those who are more successful than you are.Report
The Los Angeles Times are a bunch of fishing cowards then. Either they go for Trump out of tribal loyalty or they recognize how bad Trump is and tell people to vote Democratic, or as P.J. Roarke would pitch to his right-leaning fellow travelers “wrong within the normal parameters.”Report
Much of legacy media is cowards these days.Report
The SF Standard reports:
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That is impressive.Report
That is worthy of honor and respect.Report
Doesn’t this qualify as “other”?Report
It depends on how seriously you took the editorials editor to this point.
I don’t suppose you could point to your favorites of hers…Report
No it doesn’t.Report
Yeah, she never impressed me either.
The paper struck me as a billionaire’s vanity project that he let his daughter run as a Social Justice Newspaper.
You’d think that if there’s a second city that could put out a paper that had a shot at rivaling the NYT, it’d be LA, but… Nope.
You’re stuck with the LA Times.Report
Good for her. The NPR story on this quotes the owner as trying to throw the Editorial Board under the bus for his decision.Report
Seems like it’s a private company and the owner can run it however they like.Report
It is, he can, and the rest of us can react as we please. Or is there an actual point?Report
HE can – but throwing other sunder the bus for your own decisions is no bueno, and deserves to called out publicly. If you are going to be ballsy enough to dictate to an editorial board when and how they endorse political candidates, you should really own that.Report
The daughter of the owner of the LA Times has explained her take on the non-endorsement:
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Here’s something interesting: Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Chinese name is 黃馨祥. “黃,” pronounced “Huang” in Mandarin, is a common Chinese surname cognate with Vietnamese Hoang and Huynh. 馨祥 is pronounced “Xinxiang” in Mandarin; Soon-Shiong is probably how it’s pronounced in another Chinese language, perhaps Hakka.
So he seems to have dropped his Chinese surname entirely, and adopted his given name as his English surname. It’s very common for Chinese people to replace their given name with an English name in an English-speaking (or even Chinese-speaking) context, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a Chinese person adopting his given name as a surname.Report
What influence does it have if they endorse Kamala? Who would care in a such DNC state? Seems irrelevantReport