Coming Soon: A Revitalized LA Times

A few weeks ago, it was reported that the storied Los Angeles Times had decided that it would forego endorsing a candidate for President this year. Its editorial page editor and several of her staff quit in protest.

 

On Wednesday, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong the Publisher and owner of the Times, announced he was hiring a new editorial board made up of liberal, moderate and conservative voices to be able to present a more balanced and fair opinion to its readers.

“If we were honest with ourselves, our current board of opinion writers veered very left, which is fine, but I think in order to have balance, you also need to have somebody who would trend right, and more importantly, somebody that would trend in the middle,” Soon-Shiong said.

Seems right to me. Maybe it is time also to make sure the editorial opinions of the writers of articles don’t seep in the reporting of the news, either. Journalism is supposed to be a balance between news and opinion. Journalism 101.

On this point, Dr Soon-Shiong agreed. “This conflation of news and opinion of the news sometimes gets all mixed up, and I think that’s part of the problem of why there’s a reduction in trust of the press.”

Hopefully, he will be able to redirect the future path of the paper and be successful in hiring a cross-section of journalists who shares his vision. It is a great paper with a great history.

Let’s hope he is successful in his quest.