After President-elect Donald J. Trump announced a cascade of cabinet picks last month, the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times decided it would weigh in. One writer prepared an editorial arguing that the Senate should follow its traditional process for confirming nominees, particularly given the board’s concerns about some of his picks, and ignore Mr. Trump’s call for so-called recess appointments.
The paper’s owner, the billionaire medical entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, had other ideas.
Hours before the editorial was set to be sent to the printer for the next day’s newspaper, Dr. Soon-Shiong told the opinion department’s leaders that the editorial could not be published unless the paper also published an editorial with an opposing view.
Baffled by his order and with the print deadline approaching, editors removed the editorial, headlined “Donald Trump’s cabinet choices are not normal. The Senate’s confirmation process should be.” It never ran.
Dr. Soon-Shiong’s intervention, recounted by four people inside The Times who would speak only anonymously, is one of a string of events in which he has waded into the publication’s opinion section in ways that he hadn’t until this fall’s presidential campaign. Shortly before the presidential election, Dr. Soon-Shiong quashed the editorial board’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Multiple staff members quit in protest. He has also said publicly that the outlet needs more balance and that he wants to introduce a “bias meter” alongside coverage.
As the owner of The Times, Dr. Soon-Shiong can shape the publication as he wants. He has not recently weighed in on coverage in the newsroom, according to a top editor, which operates separately from the opinion section. Both departments are overseen by the same executive editor, Terry Tang.
But Dr. Soon-Shiong’s public comments and actions have concerned many staff members who fear he is trying to be deferential to the incoming Trump administration. The call to have dueling editorials has also confounded many of its seasoned journalists, who know editorials as the institution’s position on issues.
