Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of Los
Angeles Times, has drawn his share of criticism for his running of the paper.
But Soon-Shiong explained some of his actions and discussed his plans for
the Times with Mark Halperin on 2WAY Tonight, an interactive live video platform.
“The commitment from me is to ensure that we have good investigative
journalism,” Soon-Shiong, said. “That’s what journalism should be, to speak truth to power. But it's not a sustainable business now. I understand the courts have ruled a little bit n
favor of the platforms taking advertising dollars away, and that’s what’s destroyed the paper, but more importantly the local papers. Having said that, you’ve got to find a way other
than just crying about it to create a platform that engages the audience, so that’s what we’re doing."
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That includes the video operation called LA Times Studios that has
drawn resistance in the newsroom. The paper is building a consortium of studios in different locations that will provide content on news, sports, even healthcare. And it is now streaming content 12
hours a day.
“Change may be difficult for people to accept or understand,” Soon-Shiong said. “But the good news is, it's a
privately held company and I'm going to just keep on trying.”
But what about his controversial decision to not endorse a candidate in last year’s presidential election Soon-Shiong
continued. “With regard to Kamala Harris, we did not endorse her, got a lot of heat for that and lost a lot of viewers for that. I think that was the right thing to
do.”
Asked about candidates for the California governorship, Soon-Shiong replied, “I don’t see professional politicians running a big state like this, and
you see what you saw. I think the right kind of person to run an important state like this, with the largest economy, is someone who has experience and competence. And you can’t really
have experience and competence unless you actually have had experience and competence in running large organizations and, frankly, truly, making a payroll.”