It’s starting to sound very Roger Ailes over at the Los Angeles Times.
Weeks after the paper’s owner Patrick Soon-Shiong scuttled a planned and penned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, the billionaire Abraxane creator is now putting a whole new editorial board in place.
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Pulling out Fox News’ old “Fair and Balanced” motto, Dr. Soon-Shiong took to social media over the weekend to praise a reader’s letter slamming LAT columnist LZ Granderson over reasons for Donald Trump‘s election win and then dropped the news of the new editorial board “coming soon.”
He also noted in Sunday’s posting: “I will work towards making our paper and media fair and balanced so that all voices are heard and we can respectfully exchange every American’s view … from left to right to the center. Coming soon. A new Editorial Board. Trust in media is critical for a strong democracy.”
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On the night after Trump’s admitted remarkable political comeback, the LAT owner didn’t go quite full Fox News, but he was certainly already leaning in.
After a series of resignations at the paper that took place following the non-endorsement decision, there are now just a trio of LA Times Media Guild members still on the current board. Not exactly a massive leap of faith to presume they will not be joining the new board once it is seated in El Segundo at the LAT HQ, based Dr. Soon-Shiong own words.
An individual close to events at the Times told Deadline on Monday that there is “pervasive feeling of despair” at the outlet that has deepened since Soon-Shiong’s November 10 announcement. “It’s bad to worse, isn’t it, like the whole country,” the individual added in the aftermath of Trump’s return to the White House.
Deadline reached out to the LA Times Media Guild for comment on Soon-Shiong’s pledge of bringing in a board. If and when it responds, this post will be updated.
However, it is worth noting what the LA Times Media Guild did say on October 25.
“Our newspaper’s owner publicly blamed the members of the Editorial Board for his decision not to endorse, saying incorrectly that ‘they chose to remain silent,'” the Guild stated towards the end of longer statement (read it here). “They did not. They planned an endorsement — one that was rejected. The owner’s action unnecessarily made Editorial Board members vulnerable to harassment, impacting their ability to effectively perform their jobs.”
On another note, after the well compensated Ailes was canned from Fox in mid-2016 amidst allegations of sexual harassment and sexual abuse, Fox News ditched the “Fair and Balanced” motto. Maybe the LAT intends to resurrect it for the new Trump term.
Katie Campione contributed to this report