Part 135: The Troubled Los Angeles Times – Patrick Soon-Shiong and the MAGA Crowd

Published December 2, 2024.

Dec 03, 2024

Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is honored by Pope Francis in 2016 with the Pontifical Key Visionary Award for his cancer therapeutic drug Abraxane (Photo from Nantworks Website).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

“Not many 70 year olds could do that [sic]!” writes Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times on X, formerly known as Twitter, sharing a video of announced Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. working out lined with “Practicing moves for my confirmation hearing” in a cringe-worthy moment. The namesake son of his much more noble father, who served as Attorney General under President John F. Kennedy, is hardly the only questionable nominee of President Donald Trump. Lacking any actual credentials in health administration, medical, or administrative, and having not held any public office, his appointment was a clear return on his political support. The younger Kennedy had even reportedly approached the former campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris in an abortive attempt to secure a cabinet appointment. The slow decline of the credibility of the Los Angeles Times, which claims to practice independent journalism, continued in the cringiest possible way. What the heck is PSS thinking here?

An internal email posted on X by New York Times journalist Ben Mullin showed the newspaper’s editors in scramble mode following their owner's appearance on Fox News. Executive Editor Terry Tang wrote: “I know there are concerns about Patrick Soon-Shiong’s appearance with Fox News last night.” She reiterated that Soon-Shiong simply sought to have a greater array of opinions in the editorial section and that its news content should not be adulterated in any way. Tang finished by adding that Managing Editor Hector Becerra and her would “be having staff meetings with all departments in the next few weeks, and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.” The paper of record in Los Angeles, already suspect to many, has only become more suspicious as Soon-Shiong moved to hire conservative pro-Trump CNN commentor Scott Jennings to replace one of three editors who departed following the paper's non-endorsement in the presidential election. Hector Becerra is unrelated to current Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a former Congressman and California Attorney General who since 2021 has served as the 25th Secretary.

The Los Angeles Times, which is based in El Segundo, is actually a money-losing venture. Despite two rounds of layoffs and a newsroom scandal that resulted in the prior resignation of top editor Kevin Merida, there are no signs the paper is reviewing its actual business model. Instead, even as his biomedical technology firm has moved to acquire a new building in El Segundo, as reported by Real Deal journalist Isabella Farr last March for $25 million in return for 84,000 square feet of office space. Amidst the turmoil, a guest columnist for Los Angeles Magazine, public relations professional Calvin Naito, wrote a piece recommending three ways in which Soon-Shiong could save the newspaper, seemingly sound advice such as turning it into a non-profit, advocating for journalism as an industry, and hiring media experts to transform the paper into a multimedia enterprise. None of these ideas have been adopted by its ownership. Undoubtedly, the Times is still losing tens of millions of dollars every year.

Whether RFK Jr. is confirmed, much less whether Pat Soon-Shiong can turn the Los Angeles Times around financially, remains to be seen, but clearly questions need to be asked about where this is going. A paper of record is supposed to be authoritative and independent, a place where news is reliably published, and also a place of community, including in respect to the publishing of notices. In seemingly calling his own product into question, Soon-Shiong has all but opened the doors to the question of not just whether the Los Angeles Times has a liberal or conservative bias but whether it can even be trusted to deliver the full story. This is a profound problem to have as a business and representative of a larger problem in the Los Angeles media ecosystem, not to mention the national media. In short, the Los Angeles Times simply isn’t invested in the community of Los Angeles anymore. In noting Soon-Shiong’s turn to the “MAGA” philosophy, President-elect Trump’s “Make Great America Again” movement, L.A. Taco, Director of Partnerships Memo Torres, wrote on Elon Musk’s X: “I don’t encourage cancelling subscriptions to the @latimes only because there are so many good journalists that I admire and some I call friends that are fighting the good fight internally.” Torres added about his publication, which speaks directly to not just the Hispanic community but a great portion of the city that embraces Latino culture: “We need you.” What makes Los Angeles great is and has always been its people.

Over 4.8 million people in L.A. County are Latino. The L.A. Times vehicle for addressing this cultural gap has been “De Los,” but it’s only rarely featured on the front page of the publication’s website or in its social media posts. Make no mistake; as Torres wrote, there are still a great many journalists at the Times who are doing excellent work, but the magic in a bottle simply isn’t there, and the news content comes across as stale. Many interesting, significant stories around Los Angeles go uncovered; for example, as I’ve highlighted, the lack of conclusiveness in the source of the LA Fed Tapes, for which the paper won Pulitzer Prizes in 2023 for Breaking News coverage. Most certainly, the Times, which has rivaled the Washington Post, now owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos for investigative prowess, lacks punching power. Some of this undoubtedly comes off as political, and as I’ve tried to investigate whether that’s in fact the reason behind some of the distortion evident in its coverage, I’m simply left asking whether the paper is capable of Watergate-level reporting. Even former LA Times reporter Matt Pearce, now also on Substack, has amplified that more investment in investigation is needed, arguing that the cost of producing mass nonsense is lower than producing actual meaningful news information of value.

“It’s good consumers hold journalism to high standards, Matt Pearce wrote recently. Declaring that “the problem here is that the bar is getting lowered, not raised, for everything else,” we can only hope that people inside and outside of the Times will work to continue raising the bar in a meaningful way. The Watergate scandal is again in the news because of President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter Biden’s conviction and guilty pleas over a firearm purchase and tax evasion, the latter of which took place in Los Angeles. Respected legal journalist Meghan Cuniff noted on X that even after this move, the special prosecutors are still insistent on maintaining that they acted with full integrity, to which the younger Biden’s attorneys responded: “The fact that Mr. Biden has been indicted will still remain true even with a dismissal of the Indictment, just as it would remain true even if Mr. Biden had been acquitted at trial." Cuniff also publishes on Substack, which for many journalists and writers is in fact quite profitable even as it loses money, according to the New York Times, which reported that Substack turned down a buyout offer from Elon Musk. Some apparently on this platform are grossing $1 million plus annually, but definitely not this journalist.

The media swarm itself is problematic. Undoubtedly some of this weakness is grounded in power politics and celebrity, but some of it is also truly cringeworthy. For example, while Pete Hegseth is undoubtedly a public figure as President-elect Donald Trump’s announced unqualified nominee for Secretary of Defense, the coverage of his sexual misconduct scandal is troubling. What were CNN’s reporters expecting by confronting a credible victim of sexual assault with the worst episode of her life? Seriously, this is how their untrauma-informed story read: “The woman who accused Hegseth of assault broke into tears when asked about the matter by CNN reporters last week and declined to comment.” Strangely, the Los Angeles Times piece on this went into excruciating detail down to the text messages: “Omg I have so much to tell you. This Pete dude is a ... toooool.” Yet this same paper is unable to identify and examine billionaire Rick Caruso’s close political associate Sam Garrison and his political fundraiser Jim Garrison father in their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage. Moreover, the Times has almost entirely denied any voice to the two accused leakers of the LA Fed Tapes, even when it’s present in the open civil court case filings.

So much for independent investigation? “While civil suits by two of the participants in the conversation are pending, the latest development greatly reduces the chances of a trial that would unearth definitive answers about how and why the scandal was set into motion,” the Times reporters wrote on October 16. Similarly, despite coming up with the actual document reportedly, the Times has not released the Draft Stipulated Judgment of Attorney General Rob Bonta, and that, if implemented, would rework Los Angeles City Council district lines in advance of the 2026 election. It’s not even clear if Kevin de León, who was part of the reason the State investigation into gerrymandering was allowed in the negotiations, but thankfully at least he lost. I’m down to only a few days left to literally chase KDL around City Hall in the hopes of getting answers about just exactly what is going on with his successor, Ysabel Jurado, set to take office on December 13. At which point, getting to KDL will be much harder until the June 2025 civil trial begins. KDL seems worried about me from our interactions, and that’s a good thing because I don’t believe his filings, and one of the defendants is accusing him of “fraud.” KDL doesn’t seem too excited about it lately.

While the Los Angeles Times is largely twiddling its thumbs, I’ll be pushing for answers as to just what exactly went on and why the findings of the District Attorney’s office and City Attorney’s office differed on what the evidence meant, seemingly almost entirely an internet protocol (IP) address and workplace investigation. That’s raising the bar, so even as George Gascón leaves office in lieu of Nathan Hochman tomorrow after a landslide defeat, politics in Los Angeles remains an open ballgame, if you can afford the ticket. Ysabel Jurado will be joined as a newcomer by Adrin Nazarian on the 15-member body that holds great power in Los Angeles. But only Jurado, thanks to the effort of Los Angeles Times journalist Gustavo Arellano, has sworn on the Baby Jesus (Santo Niño), famously Tweeted out by disgraced ex-City Councilmember José Huizar. If you ask me, Nazarian should have to swear on it too. “It’s about the work,” Jurado told Arellano, having won the papers endorsement as KDL declined to even sit for an interview. Next time, I’m going to get KDL on camera pointing his finger at me; guilty as sin of self-inflicted conspiracy. News flash, in order to record the meeting, you had to know that it was happening, and that’s a select few.

The Watergate scandal only broke open for a few reasons: a security guard, honest policing, public officials willing to do their jobs openly, and a whistleblower source, famously known as Deep Throat. The Los Angeles Police Department, which has new leadership in its Media Relations Division, has continued to decline further comment on whether it will reopen its investigation into the source of the Tapes which fueled perhaps the biggest political scandal in the history of Los Angeles politics. Sadly, few have much confidence in the integrity of public officials in Los Angeles, but I think there’s hope for Jurado, maybe even Nazarian, who will succeed outgoing Council President Paul Krekorian. Now pardoned Hunter Biden’s filing objecting to the Special Counsel’s intransigence didn’t have the name of Mark Geragos, who represents Kevin De León in his civil case against the two accused individuals, both former employees of the LA Fed, the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.

Bizarrely, or perhaps not, the union will be among 3 who get to select representatives for the new Los Angeles County Governance Reform Task Force, with 13 members in total. It will be joined by 10 appointed representatives by the 5 current supervisors, SEIU 721, and the union, which represents County employees. Some had characterized the LA Fed Tapes scandal as one of "lobbying,” even as others decried the racism on the Tapes. Few questioned whether it was the result of political machinations, even as both Kevin De León and Gil Cedillo cried political interference in their court filings. Rick Caruso, the philanthropist, has been busy giving away Thanksgiving turkeys and lighting the Christmas tree at the Grove, but soon he’ll be faced with a decision on whether to take another shot at becoming Mayor of Los Angeles, having lost to current Mayor Karen Bass four years ago, who has already declared her re-election campaign. Last time, Caruso was somewhat of a late-filer, displacing Jessica Lall, now at the Central City Association, and former Councilmember Joe Buscaino for rightward positioning before knocking De León out of the race and faltering to Bass, despite $100 million in self-financed spending.

Somehow I don’t think Caruso, who is estimated to be worth $7.9 million, cared as much about the money as he did the losing. Literally mailing in his concession speech and later finally losing his temper and blaming Bass for both the Tapes and his defeat on the basis of her skin color. The shopping mall and real estate magnate possesses so much celebrity-pulling power that his properties perhaps rival only Donald Trump in the real estate world for notoriety and influence. Many proclaimed that he would run for Senator in 2024 or for Governor in 2026, and with word spreading, he had even done some polling for the latter. Caruso’s social media concession statement in 2022 stated, “there will be more to come from the movement we created.” Los Angeles Times journalist Gustavo Arellano at the time wrote of the run, quoting Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “politics must not swallow up all of a people’s spiritual and creative energies.” The same could be said for Donald Trump. He’s as bad as we’ll let him make us. Trump’s rise is a reflection of our own complications.

The U.S. Senate should obviously reject both RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth as nominees; the news has only been getting worse for both. The alternate reality that is politics grounded in alternative facts must end. Playing into the delusions of megalomaniac billionaires, even well-intentioned, will only end poorly. Faced with this problem in the 19th century, the United States enacted a raft of reforms, including the very same income tax laws that Hunter Biden has now been pardoned for violating. Power, raw, unadulterated power, belies its holders in their words and actions, even in the looks on their faces. Perhaps the hardest-to-forget moment of the 2024 elections might just be Donald Trump simulating a sex act on stage during a campaign speech. It’s the little things, though, that you catch that make recordings special, like Kevin De León stating after former President Council President Nury Martinez noted that County Supervisor Hilda Solis planned to audit county contracts following Mark Ridley-Thomas’s indictment: “She’s going to look into the L.A. Times after.” The County audit found no additional wrongdoing in contracts despite MRT’s criminal convictions.

Now the same debate is playing out in Orange County in the wake of Supervisor Andrew Do’s resignation following press exposure and a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid. And of course the next wildly unqualified nominee is Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel to replace FBI director Chris Wray. Strangely, Patel, among other bizarre actions, has even hawked COVID-19 “vaccine reversal pills on his Truth social account, the platform created by Donald Trump. Ironically, Caruso had turned on Trump after waffling for a number of years in backing President Joe Biden. Caruso had donated $100,000 to Kamala Harris late in September on top of $60,000 total in preceding months, among other donations, but you have to wonder if he doesn’t regret a little not holding his fire like Patrick Soon-Shiong until the deal is done. Last December, Caurso had written on X, “We can't afford the chaos of Trump and his disdain for the fundamental principles of our democracy,” further noting, “We need a stable leader who has the experience to guide America through the complications of our world” in endorsing President Joe Biden. Maybe Rick isn’t such a bad guy?

It’s often said that smart money plays both sides. Rick Caruso has congratulated DA-elect Nathan Hochmann on his victory, but he hasn’t said a word about Donald Trump. Were Rick Caruso to enter the mayoral race, he would immediately be confronted with issues at which the majority of Los Angeles is in conflict with the Trump administration, most especially on immigration. Donald Trump has often been cast as a white supremacist, and yet he made inroads with both Latino and African-American voters. Was Kamala Harris just that bad? People ask me why I think she lost, and whether it was gender, skin color, or just an all-around unclear message, it sure seems America wanted to go down this path. Whether the troubled Los Angeles Times, much less the second-most populous city in the country, can figure out its own path remains to be seen, but you sure don’t hear Patrick Soon-Shiong calling for moderate opinions and views. So much for fair and balanced news coverage!

Link: Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong Tweet RE: RFK Jr.

Link: RFK Jr tried to meet with Kamala Harris to propose cabinet job – reports

Link: Ben Mullin Tweet RE: Patrick Soon-Shiong FOX News

Link: CNN commentator Scott Jennings joins Los Angeles Times editorial board after owner calls for more conservative voices

Link: Patrick Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks buys another El Segundo building

Link: How Patrick Soon-Shiong Can Save the Los Angeles Times (Opinion)

Link: Memo Torres Tweet: RE: Los Angeles Times

Link: Los Angeles Times De Los

Link: Journalism's fight for survival in a postliterate democracy

Link: Meghann Cuniff Tweet RE: Hunter Biden

Link: Substack Bets on Politics, With Millions at Stake

Link: Police report reveals new details from sexual assault allegation against Trump’s defense secretary nominee