A Conservative at the Los Angeles Times!

Last month, the Los Angeles Times caused news when its proprietor, Patrick Soon-Shiong, prevented the paper’s editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

L.A. Times editorial board member Mariel Garza resigned in protest, claiming that “in these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity.”

The implication was that Soon-Shiong was capitulating before the future dictator Trump.

But if that were true, Soon-Shiong would have compelled the editorial board to endorse Trump.  He would have also prevented the paper from writing a syllable against Trump. 

But that didn’t happen.  The L.A. Times, like the WaPo and the NYT, is still a fervent Democrat mouthpiece.

Soon-Shiong was merely urging some semblance of objectivity, fairness, balance, and a departure from blind partisanship.  The L.A. Times board implicitly rejected the request with their silence.

So many comments about the @latimes Editorial Board not providing a Presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about.

The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH…

— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) October 23, 2024

When propaganda becomes the norm, fairness appears like oppression. 

The news of Soon-Shiong’s request caused turmoil among the L.A. Times personnel and subscriber desertion.  The paper had to plead with its subscribers to abandon them and express “concern” about the proprietor’s fair request.

The reason behind Soon-Shiong’s fair request was that, unlike the paper’s propagandist, Soon-Shiong cared for his paper’s reputation.  He didn’t want his paper humiliated for endorsing the bumbling world salad chef.

The Democrat propagandists have a kamikaze mentality.  They don’t mind killing their and their papers’ credibility on the partisanship hill because “the cause” matters more than the fact.  They know that if their endorsement is proven wrong, they just have to turn around and call voters racists and sexists. 

Soon-Shiong’s judgment was proven right.  He saved his paper from the ignominy of being on the wrong side of the presidential elections.

The Washington Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, also prevented his paper from endorsing Kamala Harris, much to the chagrin of the WaPo staff.

Following Trump’s victory, the L.A. Times blamed caucasian women, but this time, another piece denounced that divisive stand. 

This proves that dissenters now have a voice at the L.A. Times, and Soon-Shiong’s ideas are having an impact.

Soon-Shiong recently took another step to attempt fairness in his paper by hiring conservative commentator Scott Jennings to the paper’s editorial board.

It’s true – I’ve accepted @DrPatSoonShiong invitation to join the editorial board of the @latimes. I’ve written columns for the paper over the last few years and was honored to do so under such a storied and important masthead. I love newspapers and believe in strong journalism… https://t.co/GrMa44T6en

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) November 29, 2024

This may be the first step to ensure diversity in the paper.

Alas, the kind of “diversity” currently practiced in new outlets is superficial.  It focuses on race, sex, sexuality, etc., but the most crucial type of diversity — variety of perspectives, ideologies, and political proclivities — is strictly forbidden.

Hence, all personnel at any news outlet, from the cub reporter to the senior-most editor, sound alike.  They all don’t think alike, but dissenters realize they will lose employment for attempting to sow heresy.  The outlets have even cultivated a subscriber base that prefers propaganda over inconvenient facts.

Consequently, the organizations have devolved into complete echo chambers.

On Election Night, following Trump’s landslide victory, the echo chambers suffered a rude shock: their truths weren’t the universal truth, and their propaganda couldn’t sway the nation. 

The media suffered ridicule for being out of touch with the public, and it seems to have had an impact.

The WaPo, which is a Democrat mouthpiece, carried a critical op-ed about another Democrat mouthpiece, MSNBC.

The NYT carried a piece by the Trump-supporting brother of columnist Maureen Dowd.

Both CNN and MSNBC have lost almost half of their audience since Trump’s election.  This compelled the Morning Joe couple to visit Mar-a-Lago.  It also caused MSNBC “star” Rachel Maddow to accept a pay cut.

There are reports of possible layoffs including the sacking of “stars” at CNN.  Chris Wallace has already departed the network.

A propagandist on The View has been forced to issue retractions or clarifications after engaging in baseless attacks on Trump’s Cabinet picks. 

These were unprecedented occurrences.

In times of universal deceit, standing for the truth is a revolutionary act.  This is what Soon-Shiong seems to be doing.

But merely hiring Scott Jennings is not enough.  Jennings must be empowered to bring about change. 

There must be a diversity of perspectives.  The paper’s editorial board and other key staff must be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

How will this help?

Assume that an allegation reaches their newspaper’s desk that President Trump intends to make Mein Kampf mandatory reading in schools.  The Democrats’ group is eager to publish but won’t be able to because they lack a majority or monopoly on the board.  The Republican group fact-checks the story and will learn that it emanated from a news satire site.  The story is killed.

The op-ed page must contain a balance.  The Democrats editors highlight the shortcomings of the Trump administration, whereas Republican editors highlight what is working.  Both op-eds will be fact-checked by the opposite group — i.e., Republicans will fact-check Democrats and vice versa.

Someday, the echo chamber of fear and hesitation evolves into an environment of free speech. 

Someday, the deep polarization will end, and every syllable in the paper will be factual.

The move by the LA Times and remedial actions by others also prove the importance of Trump’s re-election, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

Most politicians lose votes from the day they get elected because it is impossible to win everybody.  President Trump won 62.9 million in 2016, 74.2 million in 2020, and 76.9 million in 2024.  He expanded his voter base with each election, which is an outstanding achievement.  Trump is popular not only in his own country; in Britain, Trump is more popular than Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

It proved to many, particularly members of the establishment, that Trump’s re-election was no fluke.  It wasn’t due to collusion with Russia or fake news peddlers in Macedonia or any other flimsy reason that Hillary Clinton claimed. 

It was a resounding approval from the public of Trump and his policies.  It was also an emphatic rejection of the self-serving, self-protecting, and corrupt establishment that views regular people with scorn.

Trump isn’t an aberration, but a norm.  His re-election has empowered or perhaps compelled the leadership across news outlets to think about change.

Now, it would be naïve to pop the champagne and expect to see instant change in the media.  The Democrat establishment and its propaganda networks — i.e., the likes of MSNBC, the NYT, the L.A. Times, etc. — were cultivated over decades.  Their roots run deep and wide.  They will retaliate.  For instance, liberals have slammed Scott Jenning’s joining the L.A. Times.  In the future, it won’t just be mere criticism.  Matters will get ugly.

It will take time and determination to dismantle this corrupt system. 

But matters will improve.

The evolution of Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover proves how the change in ownership makes a difference in an organization. 

The remedial move by the L.A. Times is a step in the right direction.

Hopefully, this is the first step of a journey of a thousand miles, whose destination is balance and fairness.

Hopefully, someday, there won’t be right-leaning or left-leaning news outlets.  There will be just outlets that report facts and carry insightful perspectives.