Local Press in Crisis

You’ll have to decide which situation is worse:  The Los Angeles Times declining to endorse a presidential candidate this year and having three editors resign out of principle.  Or that the union representing reporters and editors at Southern California News Group (SCNG), which owns the Orange County Register, has called for a strike on November 4 — the day before election day.

The LA Times isn’t the only major media outlet declining to endorse; the Washington Post won’t endorse for the first time in 36 years after billionaire owner Jeff Bezos pulled the plug on the endorsement.  The result was 250,000 cancellations for the Post which has been using the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”  Looks like their flashlight no longer works.  It’s been suggeste Bezos killed the endorsement to protect Amazon’s business interests with the federal government.  His data storage contract with the federal government is estimated at $10 billion.

There’s speculation Bezos rejected the editorial board’s endorsement of Harris because coming out against Trump might cost Amazon federal government business

For the LA Times, publisher, he had discussions with the Trump administration back in 2017, prior to his purchase of the Times in 2018.  Soon-Shiong also killed a multi-part series that would have criticized Trump.  The Times has lost 20,000 subscribers.

From The Wrap: “According to internal memos viewed by TheWrap, the series, tentatively called “The Case Against Trump,” would have ran throughout this week. The endorsement of Kamala Harris would then have been published on Sunday.  However, Soon-Shiong ordered the cancellation 0f the series and the endorsement without explanation, current and now former staffers have confirmed, setting off a massive crisis for the 142-year-old paper.”

The paper’s Union released this statement:

“We are deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race. We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse.”

While there have been some cancellations of the LA Times by subcribers, it’s not at the same level as the Washington Post.

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Meanwhile, my wife and I caught up with several old friends from the Register at writer Robin Hinch’s memorial service Sunday in  Santa Ana.  Many longtime journalists there haven’t had a raise since the Obama administration.  The timing of the strike — the day before election day — is a power move by the union that would force readers to alternative sources of election news.  And seeing so many old friends reminds me just how good the Register’s news reporting is even if their Opinion Desk still sucks.

What’s important to remember here is that while both local dailies prepare our daily news, their real product is credibility.  You know each story was vetted, fack checked, edited and then published  Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, called for citizen journalists to take control, but that’s not really going to work without more formal training.