The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times said his paper “confuses news and opinion” and doubled down on his promise to bring in more conservative voices to balance the left-leaning paper.
Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, who sparked an internal revolt over the paper's decision to end support for Vice President Kamala Harris, said the planned overhaul would move the Times towards “hearing” and “representing” “both sides”. spoke. ”
“If it's news, it should just be a fact. And if it's an opinion, it's probably an opinion on the news, which I now call 'voice.'” Soon-Shiong said in an interview. “Fox News@Night” host trace gallagher on thursday
“So we want voices from all sides to be heard and we want the news to be just facts.”
Soon-Shiong, who bought the 142-year-old newspaper for $500 million in 2018, wants to represent both sides of the political debate, as CNN recently did with Republican strategist Scott Jennings. , adding that they hope to include conservative voices. .
“It's our responsibility to uphold our democracy and to air the opinions of all our readers in California, and in fact all our readers across the country. If you only have one side, you're just an echo chamber.” he told Armstrong.
“So it's going to be risky and it's going to be difficult. I'm going to go into it with great enthusiasm, and I already am, but as you know, I want all voices to be heard. It comes from a position of being really important.”
The statement echoes what Soon-Shiong posted on X over the weekend, in which he said, “Every voice is heard and every American's opinion is respected…from the left to the right to the center. He wrote that he wanted a paper that was “fair and balanced” so that opinions could be exchanged.
“Coming soon. New editorial board. Trust in the media is critical to a strong democracy,” he added.
Earlier this week, Harris said her support for Israel's military action in Gaza was one of the main reasons she refused to support Democrats.
But his desire to add more conservative voices appears to be at odds with his reasons for ending support, as many right-wing voices support the Jewish state's war against Hamas terrorists. .
In any case, Soon-Shiong has several editorial board vacancies after three members of the editorial board resigned in protest following the paper's disapproval. The newspaper has supported Democratic candidates in every presidential election since 2008.
Like the Times, the Washington Post has decided not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Bad luck continued, including the resignation of several staff members and the shocking loss of more than 250,000 readers who canceled their subscriptions in protest.
William Lewis, the paper's publisher, said the paper's job is to “provide nonpartisan news to all Americans through our newsroom and thought-provoking views from our opinion teams so readers can make their own decisions.” That's what I do.'' Above all, our job as the newspaper in the capital of the world's most important country is to be independent. And that is what we are and will continue to be. ”
