The billionaire owner of The Los Angeles Times said his paper has conflated news and opinion and vowed to take it in another direction where all voices are heard and represented.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the LA Times in 2018, told “Fox News @ Night” Thursday he wants his paper to differentiate between news and opinion, and explicitly report on “facts.”
“If it’s news, it should just be the facts, period. And if it’s an opinion, that’s maybe an opinion of the news, and that’s what I call now a voice. And so, we want voices from all sides to be heard, and we want the news to be just the facts,” he explained.
Soon-Shiong came under fire after he quashed the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris in the final days leading up to the 2024 election.
Three members of the LA Times’ editorial board resigned in protest over the paper’s non-endorsement. The paper had previously endorsed Democratic candidates in every presidential race since 2008.
Soon-Shiong wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, over the weekend that he wants a paper that’s “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,” he said.
The doctor reiterated his views to Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher, once again arguing for the need to have “views on both sides.”
“It is our responsibility to maintain democracy, to have the views of all our California readers, in fact, the views of all the national readers to be aired. Because if we just have the one side, it becomes nothing else but an echo chamber,” he said.
“And so, it’s going to be risky and difficult. I’m going to take a lot of heat, which I already am, but you know, I come from the position that really it’s important for all voices to be heard.”
The Washington Post also decided not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential race and vowed not to in any future election either.
Publisher William Lewis said the job of the Post is “to provide through the newsroom nonpartisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds. Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent. And that is what we are and will be.”
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