Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, has reportedly decided to retract his newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris’s presidential candidacy, allegedly due to Harris stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. His daughter, Nika, shared the news on social media, citing Harris’s support for Israel amid what she described as a “Gaza genocide.”
The decision sparked internal upheaval, leading to the resignation of three editorial board members and a petition from around 200 employees seeking clarity on the paper’s stance. In an interview, Soon-Shiong defended the move, asserting, “I have no regrets whatsoever. In fact, I think it was exactly the right decision. The process was [to decide]: how do we actually best inform our readers? And there could be nobody better than us who try to sift the facts from fiction.”
In a post on X, Nika Soon-Shiong commented, “This is not a vote for Donald Trump. This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate that is overseeing a war on children […] There is no such thing as human animals. For me, genocide is the line in the sand.”
Responding to his daughter’s statements, Patrick Soon-Shiong clarified that Nika has no role in the newspaper’s editorial decisions.
“Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion, as every community member has the right to do. She does not have any role at the L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times,” he said in a statement.