LA Times stoked controversy after announcing that it would not endorse any presidential candidates in the 2024 White House race.
Following the uproar, billionaire Patrick Soon Shiong, who has owned the paper since June 2018, claimed the issue is the leadership of its opinion section that has disregarded his order to create a policy detail compare and contrast list. He asserted that they instead “chosen to remain silent,” an allegation that current and former Times employees deny.
Patrick Soon Shiong’s daughter issues surprising statement
On Saturday, Nika Soon Shiong, a 31-year-old student at Oxford University and Soon Shiong’s daughter, gave a surprising statement, in contrast to her father.
According to Nika, her whole family opted against letting the publication make a suggestion about who should hold the nation’s top job amidst the worries about US backing for Israel during its war against Gaza. However, her claim, which she has made frequently on social media, is completely incorrect, as per her dad’s representative.
Patrick Soon Shiong’s controversial decisions
Notably, this isn’t the first time that the family business owned by the Soon Shiong has triggered trouble for the newspaper. In 2022, Nika was blasted for reportedly criticising public safety coverage that she felt was too pro-police, while more than thirty former and current employees voiced their concerns about Patrick’s purported attempts to promote stories on companies he had a stake in.
According to the New York Times, Patrick tried to stop coverage of lawsuits against one of his friends, which led to the sudden resignation of Kevin Merida, the paper’s executive editor, in January. However, Patrick refutes those accusations.
Speaking to Politico in 2022, Nika rejected the “suggestion that I control the editorial decisions of the paper.”
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Patrick Soon Shiong’s decision on Harris prompts public resignations
Soon-Shiong, a native from South Africa, has achieved remarkable success as a self-made biotech billionaire.
He has faced trouble in garnering support from Times employees, which is evident with the wave of resignations that occurred this week due to his unwillingness to permit the editorial board to support Kamala Harris.
Mariel Garza, the editorial editor of the LA Times, resigned on Wednesday. She told the Columbia Journalism Review that Terry Tang, the executive editor of the paper, told the editorial board that Patrick Soon Shiong would not permit the editorial board to endorse a candidate for president. “In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity,” said Garza in her resignation letter to Tang.
“I think my fear is that if we chose either one, it would just add to the division,” Soon Shiong, who has identified himself as a political independent, told Spectrum News on Thursday.
His decision also sparked the start of a revolt from the paper’s subscribers, including Star Wars actor Mark Hamill who tweeted that he was “not okay with them being silent.”
Nearly 2,000 people canceled their subscriptions for “editorial content” on Tuesday and Wednesday alone.
In response, Soon Shiong said, “I hope that they understand by not subscribing, it just adds to the demise, frankly, of democracy and the fourth estate.”
Who is Patrick Soon Shiong?
The 72-year-old Soon Shiong was born in South Africa, the nation where his parents found a home after leaving China during World War II. Following his graduating from medical school, Soon Shiong obtained a master’s degree in Canada before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue surgical training and eventually becoming an expert in pancreatic transplants.
He became wealthy after creating the medication Abraxane, which treats lung, pancreatic, and breast cancer. He also sold two pharmaceutical companies, Abraxis BioScience and APP Pharmaceuticals. His net worth is valued around $11 billion (£8.5 billion), according to the Bloomberg billionaires index.
He is a huge basketball aficionado and owns a little portion of the LA Lakers.
According to the New Yorker profile, Soon Shiong, who wants to be remembered as a physician-scientist, enjoys calling himself a “billionaire by accident.”
In 2018, Soon Shiong paid $500 million to acquire the Los Angeles Times and other local newspapers. He announced early this year that he has spent “hundreds of millions of dollars – approaching $1 billion” to maintain the publication, which has won numerous Pulitzer honors while he has owned it.
In 2016, Soon Shiong and his spouse made significant contributions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, according to Politico. Later, he contacted Donald Trump in an attempt in a bid to secure a position in his government but was unsuccessful.
Elon Musk, another South African-born billionaire, has praised Soon Shiong’s move over endorsement, while several others have been brutally critical of his choice to block LA Times from backing a candidate.
