Part 142: The Los Angeles Times of El Segundo – Mythmaking in the Media

Published December 15, 2024.

Dec 15, 2024

Photo of Patrick Soon-Shiong at left and Rick Caruso at right with other billionaires of Los Angeles from the Los Angeles Business Journal (Photo by Chris Patey).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

I just about had to roll out of bed laughing at the oversimplification. Now, I’ll be the first to admit there’s nothing funny about job losses, much less semi-tyranical leadership, but here was a news kicker. After years of brewing furor over the direction of the vaunted Los Angeles Times, the so-called paper of record, in the City of Angeles, they had really done it! In a piece that sought to softly critique the billionaire owner of the Times, one Patrick Soon-Shiong, they’re still hanging on to the mythmaking down there in El Segundo, absent what a cursory Google search might reveal about the story. James Rainey, a long-time columnist with the publication, was pleading their case: “Many Times reporters and editors rejected the notion that they inject opinion into their news reporting, saying they long labored to be impartial arbiters.” Rainey continued, “Some noted how Times reporting, with no ideological tilt, helped expose scandals at USC and the racist railings of L.A. political leaders (all Democrats) in a closed-door meeting.”

The first statement is self-assuring; the second is a gross oversimplication. Firstly, while mostly everyone thinks we still need the Los Angeles Times to do behemoth things that other smaller publications and freelancers can’t do impartially, or at least as quickly as they can, many have for years bemoaned the idea that the Times does a good job of serving the community. Many people simply don’t want to talk to their reporters anymore in the city because they don’t trust them to do their story justice. Secondly, the few reporters who did work to help “expose scandals at USC” had to literally fight their own prior ownership tooth and nail to get those stories published; otherwise, they were going to be embargoed by corporate ownership. This is encapsulated in a book for Rainey and others to readily review: Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels (2022) by Times journalist Paul Pringle. The book’s overarching, unproven theory is that the former editors of the Times may have even been in cahoots or otherwise intimidated of ruffling the feathers of the university to the point of gutting and even snuffing their stories.

That lack of certainty didn’t stop the New York Times from jumping to the conclusion: "Pringle’s fast-paced book is a master class in investigative journalism... when institutions collude to protect one another, reporting may be our last best hope for accountability." Now in the master classes of master classes, I’d get a pat on the back for doing the same and be on my way. Except for two plus years now, we just can’t do that because, well, there might be some backlash to actually holding such people accountable. All of which takes us back to where this started—the most-manufactured of manufactured scandals perhaps in the history of all news publications: The LA Fed Tapes. For those living under a journalism rock, that’s the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (The LA Fed), the most powerful labor union in all of this big, bad, overtrafficked city of division. Except here, Rainey has reduced the entire imbroglio again to one of racism and falsely suggested that other than partially publishing the relevant contents of the scandal, the Times did much work to expose overwhelmingly meaningful news.

Had the Los Angeles Times not published the illegally-made recordings, which all about fell into their reporters laps on X, formerly known as Twitter, they would have been dropped by the upstart leftward publication Knock LA. Most importantly, the Times, in a great disservice to their readers, never even published the accompanying note with the recording. That didn’t happen until the following summer, when Los Angeles magazine decided that “LA County Federation of Labor Scam” by Reddit username “Honest-Finding-1581” was worth publishing at least an image of for posterity. Still, none of these publications made any good faith effort to even analyze the contents of the note, because that couldn’t possibly be important, right? This gross journalistic malpractice not only deprived readers of critical news information, but it also resulted in a zero-confidence investigation of the source of the recordings until someone else did it for them. All of which takes us to today, with two civil case lawsuits over the leak itself and a State Attorney General’s investigation into whether the City Council Districts in are fairly drawn.

Now, with all due respect to the Times, did you know they had six Pulitzer Prizes? If given the power, I’d strip them of their prizes for this story, for which they won in the “Breaking News” category, as assuredly as I used to send disciplinary letters on behalf of the Office of the Provost at USC to bad faculty members. In an even more atrocious act of journalistic malpractice, there either was zero-quality control or deliberate miseditorialing in putting out stories in the aftermath. First, it was the publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, which serves the African-American community, who was of interest on October 18, 2022, days after the scandal broke: “Who is Danny Bakewell, the Black L.A. power broker named in the Nury Martinez audio?” The newspaper, which took over a month to produce a transcript of the matter, didn’t want to touch the other figure of interest in the recording, USC Senior Vice President Sam Garrison, a longtime politico and employee of billionaire mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees at USC. If they had, what they would have found is a web of money.

Who doesn’t love following the money? Isn’t that the first rule of good investigation? So often, financial interest alone is what drives crime, and illegally recording people, much less politicians, is a crime. Even more importantly, they could have followed the web of endorsements that involved those in the October 18, 2021 meeting, not to mention the second recording that followed from September 30, 2022 that discussed exactly that topic. No, no, no, went the chorus; it can’t be that; it must be an inside job that did Los Angeles’s version of the Watergate Hotel break-in? Ignoring my account of warning that I thought a leak was coming and that Sam Garrison would be at the center of it, Bro was literally out there acting like he was laughingly repeating others in front of a crowd on August 18, 2022. Instead, on the apparent basis of their internet protocol (IP) address and office gossip, instead two individuals, employees of the LA Fed, were identified, and, after being cleared by both the District Attorney’s office (a Democrat) and the City Attorney’s office (a swamp creature), the Associated Press didn’t even want to print their names after being handed the story by the latter office with a different finding than the former. Not the evidence suggests that this couple “committed a crime,” but rather “insufficient evidence.” This finding led to unquestioned shrieking from Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo.

Headlined on October 16, 2024 under, “Who was behind the City Hall audio leak? The question may never be answered,” the story postulated without any evidence: “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.” Except the newspaper apparently can’t get copies or something of the lawsuits, because what they’d find are not only pleas of innocence but rather allegations that something was amiss inside the LA Fed, and not just illegal recordings, instead of a cover-up. The story didn’t bother to analyze the case in any meaningful way, instead handing over valuable print space to KDL and Cedillo to wax: “I think it’s an incredible injustice for the people of Los Angeles and those who expect to be able to go and sit and have a private conversation anywhere in the city, state or this nation.” The dynamic duo can’t even keep their story straight, with KDL saying in debate with his rival for re-election that the Democratic Socialists of America—Los Angeles chapter was behind the leak, and well, Cedillo blaming them plus Nika Soon-Shiong, the daughter of Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, with no evidence.

It’s no secret that many in the Los Angeles Times newsroom don’t like the paper’s activist daughter. They even had an airing of grievances, a Festivus of sorts, in September 2022 to equally handmaiden Politico. Not to say that La Opinión is much better. After noting that Nika Soon-Shiong, like her father, has an X account (don’t sway Twitter), and that she uses it freely, Politico grounded itself: “In conversations with... more than three dozen current and former staffers said that the paper experienced growing pains relating to its novice billionaire owner.” The witchhunt was on! Nika Soon-Shiong was the witch, making life hard for the establishment media and telling them just too darn much what to do and say such that Nika was “meddling in news coverage.” Now literally, the entire Times editorial board is alleging that her South African billionaire pharmaceutical magnate father is going too darn far in secretly loving Donald Trump.

The younger Nika Soon-Shiong had sent me smoke signals about the LA Fed Tapes, and I don’t blame her for not suing Gil Cedillo for defamation. Did Patrick Soon-Shiong know the scandal was coming, and did he direct editors not to ask to many questions about where the October Surprise of the century, at least to date, came from? The paper hasn’t covered his business dealings in years now, and assuredly he wouldn’t undermine his paper’s own endorsement of Mayor Karen Bass by helping Rick Caruso get some dirty laundry out. Soon the elder Soon-Shiong was in a public spat with former Executive Editor Kevin Merida over Palestine protests about, wait for it, a billionaire’s dog-bites woman story. Not just any billionaire though, Gary Michelson, a medical device magnate and major philanthropist, including to USC. In Rainey’s story today, he gets an email from Merida who says he’s moving on and a response from the elder Patrick Soon-Shiong, “My great disappointment... was for him to go around and provide misinformation... that he resigned under protest.” The two dispute whether Merida was fired or resigned, but like a dog chasing its tail, apparently Soon-Shiong wants them to cover things “particularly in his biomedical field, but most did not result in stories.” That’s wonderful!

Somehow, though I don’t think Patrick Soon-Shiong wants the paper to report that he’s being sued in California and Delaware for allegedly manipulative business practices for financial gain. Nor would he undermine his own daughter by doing Rick Caruso a solid and literally all but refusing to investigate the real source of the LA Fed Tapes even as two people’s lives are being dragged through the mud with evidence that frankly seems planted. Pharmaceuticals like computer hacking is a dirty business; there’s a lot at risk and much to lose for big gains. One thing I know for sure: people are talking about me trying to expose this manipulation. Kevin de León admitted as much to me on the floor of the Los Angeles City Council, pointing his finger, waving his arms up as if he’s powerless, and well, I have a point. Rick Caruso gave me a deadpan. Do they have some file on me they’re passing around going, “Oh no, crap, let’s hope no one listens to that whistleblower?” The Times doesn’t even want to report that Kevin de León is being represented in court by Mark Geragos, himself, the co-owner of Los Angeles Magazine; literally, despite having court files, which are public records, they aren’t covering the allegations in the leak case, much less investigating them, because that would be just too inconvenient.

Kevin de León wouldn’t even sit for an endorsement interview with the Times. My best guess is he doesn’t want to be asked about the lawsuit, because when I asked him about it, on the side in a public meeting, you should have seen his face drop. Thankfully, we don’t have KDL to kick around like a race-baiting piñata anymore, because with one final arrest, and I’m not even sure that person’s been released yet, the massive public outcry to the LA Fed Tapes has ended in not a bang but rather a whimper. Welcome to the Establishment! Please make your selection, followed by the pound and dollar sign now. The betrayal of our democracy, whether in Los Angeles or Washington D.C., is a product of our basic lack of curiosity as well as our fear of the truth—an inability to reckon with the facts and seek full answers, not partials. That fear factor is why we’re now being banished into the proverbial darkness ruled by kleptocrats with an iron fist.

The victims of USC gynecologist George Tyndall waited more than five years for a criminal trial to occur. No reporter from the Times was even there, despite a number of other outlets covering the matter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s case against Mark Ridley-Thomas for conspiracy, fraud, and bribery is collapsing, frayed by pushback from an African-American community that rightfully doesn’t trust The Powers That Be even as they struggle to keep their own house clean. Drug-using USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen Puliafito may not be practicing medicine, and USC got away with destroying the evidence; despite an infant dying in his prescence, he didn’t do a single day in prison. The systematic undermining of justice in Los Angeles isn’t just dangerous; it’s a disservice. Yeah, they got George Gascón out, but will Nathan Hochman, buoyed by a million-plus in donations from Rick Caruso, be any better?

“Best in class,” the old man likes to say, the target of a million pleas to run again versus Mayor Karen Bass. 10,000 officers for the Los Angeles Police Department, 30,000 tiny homes for the homeless, but don’t you dare see my full taxes? While I agree that Donald Trump is a problem billionaire, he’s not the only one. So as we head into the great unknown of 2025 with time on the clock running out in 2024, all I can say is the fascists might have a point; the freedom that you enjoy has a price on it, and whomever pays that is going to own you. About political interference in news coverage, Patrick Soon-Shiong told James Rainey: "The owner also said in the interview that he had no intention of blocking stories to protect friends, family or political figures he has praised, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he recently lauded in social media posts.” Adding with finality, quoting Soon-Shiong, “If somebody has had a conflict of interest or done something bad, and it’s factually true, we should report it.” Will he keep his word? Los Angeles needs non-establishment media. I highly encourage you to support those people, and not just the mythmakers, because making myths, even in El Segundo, has become poor form.

Link: Patrick Soon-Shiong’s controversial shakeup at the L.A. Times: ‘Bias meter,’ opinion upheaval and a call for growth

Link: Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels

Link: The Power of the Press A Los Angeles Times reporter takes on a powerful university — and his own paper

Link: Tale of the Tape: L.A. City Council Scandal Rooted in Love, Not Politics

Link: LA County Federation of Labor Scam

Link: Who is Danny Bakewell, the Black L.A. power broker named in the Nury Martinez audio?

Link: Inside the room: The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, annotated by our experts

Link: Prosecutors will not file criminal charges against 2 people at center of Los Angeles racism scandal

Link: Who was behind the City Hall audio leak? The question may never be answered

Link: Gil Cedillo: 'The audio scandal was fabricated to disempower the Latino community'

Link: Tensions rise between the LA Times and its billionaire owner

Link: Biotech Billionaire Soon-Shiong Sued Over ImmunityBio Stock Move