Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong sat for a rare interview Thursday on the Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night to double down on his push to bring balance to the struggling, liberal newspaper and respond to the editorial board members who quit when he ordered the paper to not offer an endorsement in the 2024 presidential campaign.
In a report setting up the interview, our friend and host Trace Gallagher noted Soon-Shiong has been “heavily criticized by the left” and promises “bigger and bolder steps to promote trust in media and ensure all voices are represented.” Correspondent William La Jeunesse added the Times “has really drifted kind of the left for several years…and it’s not just in the editorial section, but in the news pages as well[.]”
After laying out the hubbub over the non-endorsement and outrage among Times journalists to his promise to have the paper become more “fair and balanced, so that all voices are heard and we can respectfully exchange every American’s view,” Gallagher pointed to Soon-Shiong a news headline from the end of the campaign: “Trump’s big rally doubles down on hatred.”
Though an e-mail from editor Terry Tang hours later tried to downplay what he saw as “concerns” about his Fox hit, Soon-Shiong seemed pretty definitive in answering “the latter” to Gallagher’s question about changing the editorial board or the entire paper.
“I think one of my concerns is you as a journalist would understand that’s news versus opinion. And we’ve conflated news and opinion. So, the first thing I want to do is ensure that we explicit say this is news. And 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,” Soon-Shiong explained.
The horror!
Soon-Shiong explained his desire to change the editorial board by “looking for people like” L.A. Times columnist and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings because “all voices” are “important” while, for editors, their words “have a real impact” and should tread more carefully.
Gallagher asked what this means for his broader mission to regain readership in the Greater Los Angeles area (click “expand”):
GALLAGHER: It’s interesting because the election, the voters were very clear on what they wanted, the mandate, even in in Southern California where you have — you have Orange County and you have San Bernardino County and you have Riverside County that are more Conservative. How do you reach out to them? They are your readers. How do you trust — get their trust back?
SOON-SHIONG: Well, in fact, if you look at the 2022 map of California, look at the 2024 map of California, the change has been rather dramatic moving towards the right as well as being very Liberal as before. So, 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 — to be add. Because if we just have the one side, it becomes nothing else but an echo chamber and so, it’s going to be risky and difficult. I’m going to take a lot of heat which I’m already am.
GALLAGHER: Yes.
SOON-SHIONG: But you know, I come from the position that really it’s important for all voices to be heard.
La Jeunesse had the final question: “[I]n her resignation letter, your [editorial page] editor said ‘we have spent eight years railing against Trump.’ Do you think that hurts the public trust and do you have a problem with political bias at large?”
Soon-Shiong emphasized the need for the press writ large to both more clearly differentiate what’s a news story versus one with a defined opinion as well as that “[t]he trust of the population in the press is lower than that even of Congress today because of” bias.
“How about having a paper that is completely having the views of all,” he proclaimed.
To see the relevant FNC transcript from November 14, click “expand.”
FNC’s Fox News @ Night With Trace Gallagher
November 14, 2024
11:27 p.m. EasternTRACE GALLAGHER: Well, the owner of the Los Angeles Times was heavily criticized by the left when he quashed the editorial board’s endorsement of Kamala Harris ahead of the election. Well, now, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is taking bigger and bolder steps to promote trust in media and ensure all voices are represented. The senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse is here with that story tonight. William, good evening.
WILLIAM LA JEUNESSE: Well, Trace, the paper has really drifted kind of the left for several years, you know. And it’s not just in the editorial section, but in the news pages as well and that, you know, things like climate change, income inequality, issues dear to progressives, well, it finally came to a head over the Harris endorsement. 35 years ago, America’s largest metro daily rolled off the presses with a circulation of 1.2 million. Today, it’s down by two-thirds. Last month, the L.A. Times itself made headlines when owner Dr Pat Soon-Shiong, the city’s richest man spiked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Instead, he wanted to see both candidates’ policies side by side, let the readers decide. His editorial board disagreed. Three resigned in protest. This week, Soon-Shiong called the board very left politically, and said he wants the Times to be, “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.” Two days before the election, his editorial board called Trump a, “vindictive authoritarian, consummate racist, and malignant narcissist.” Whereas, they unanimously praised Harris. One calling her, a fiery, swaggery speech maker, a commanding candidate, smart and compelling.
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LA JEUNESSE: The paper also endorsed progressive D.A., George Gascon, and opposed tough on crime, Prop 36, while voters overwhelmingly went in the opposite direction. So, one editor who resigned said, “we are a very liberal paper. Our readers are, for the most part, Harris supporters.” In fact, Trump won more California counties than Harris, Trace, including four in Greater Los Angeles.
GALLAGHER: William, thank you and stand by. Back to you in a moment. Let’s bring in the owner and executive chairman of the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon Shiong. Sir, it is great to have you on the show. It really is. And William is, as he was telling us, I think he’s right. He makes a fair point when he says because the Los Angeles Times on the — on the headline, this is on the front page, one of the things reads, Trump’s big rally doubles down on hatred. That’s the news, it’s not the op-ed. And I’m wondering when you say you want this paper to be fair and balanced, do you plan to just fix the editorial section or are you planning to go over and redo the entire paper?
PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: I think the latter. I think exactly — I think one of my concerns is you as a journalist would understand that’s news versus opinion. And we’ve conflated news and opinion. So, the first thing I want to do is ensure that we explicit say this is news. And 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.
GALLAGHER: Yes.
SOON-SHIONG: And we want the news to be just the facts.
GALLAGHER: When you talk about the editorial board because it when you tweeted it seemed like you were going to get rid of the entire editorial board. They have it all left. Is that the plan to redo the entire editorial board or just fill in the people that have left?
SOON-SHIONG: Again, I think it’s important for us to differentiate the editorial board is responsible for these opinions on these voices. So, right now, we don’t have an editorial board if we were truly about ourselves that are balanced. And so, I’ve gotten beaten up about fair and balance. So, I’m looking for people like Scott Jennings. Scott Jennings who is on CNN and he’s one out of six usually in the — in the room where we need to have all voices, the right, the left, and the moderate, the center and I think it’s important because the editors are responsible of stories that are told and stories that are not told. Editors have this nuances of the word hatred versus could the President-Elect make a real impact. And we need views from both sides. And my goal is not to change that entire editorial board for that — for that perspective.
GALLAGHER: It’s interesting because the election, the voters were very clear on what they wanted, the mandate, even in in Southern California where you have — you have Orange County and you have San Bernardino County and you have Riverside County that are more Conservative. How do you reach out to them? They are your readers. How do you trust — get their trust back?
SOON-SHIONG: Well, in fact, if you look at the 2022 map of California, look at the 2024 map of California, the change has been rather dramatic moving towards the right as well as being very Liberal as before. So, 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 — to be add. Because if we just have the one side, it becomes nothing else but an echo chamber and so, it’s going to be risky and difficult. I’m going to take a lot of heat which I’m already am.
GALLAGHER: Yes.
SOON-SHIONG: But you know, I come from the position that really it’s important for all voices to be heard.
GALLAGHER: William, are we missing something here?
LA JEUNESSE: No, I was just going to say you know, in her resignation letter, your editor said "we have spent eight years railing against Trump. Do you think that hurts the public trust and do you have a problem with political bias at large?
SOON-SHIONG: I think that’s exactly what the press needs to understand. The trust of the population in the press is lower than that even of Congress today because of this. Because you look at one paper and said that’s just right and one paper just left. How about having a paper that is completely having the views of all? So, the fact that we wrote over the last four years, I don’t know whether that was news or that was opinion. And mostly that was opinion but conflated as if it’s news. So, the first step I want to do is have the layperson say this is just a voice, what I call an opinion and not news.
LA JEUNESSE: And news will be labeled.
SOON-SHIONG: Exactly. And I’m going to do that.
GALLAGHER: Dr. Soon-Shiong, thank you for coming. William, thank you. We appreciate your time.
SOON-SHIONG: Thank you for having me.
