I am on the L.A. Times Editorial Board. Here’s why our endorsements matter

Good morning. It is Wednesday, Oct. 30. We’re going back to a once-a-week Opinion newsletter and, after today, you’ll only see us in your inbox on Saturdays. Election day is less than one week away, and here’s what’s happening in Opinion.

By now you’ve probably heard that Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong decided the newspaper would not endorse in the presidential election this year, rejecting a recommendation from editorial board members to back Vice President Kamala Harris. His decision sparked a furious backlash; nearly half of the board’s journalists resigned in protest, we’ve been flooded with letters criticizing the non-endorsement, and many thousands of readers have canceled their subscriptions.

I’m one of the remaining editorial board members, and I don’t blame readers for their outrage. I believe the decision not to endorse Harris, after the editorial board has spent years detailing how Donald Trump is uniquely dishonest, a threat to democracy and unfit for the White House, is an abdication of the mission and values that we’ve espoused.

The editorial board is a team of veteran writers and editors in the Opinion section, separate from the newsroom. We serve as the institutional voice of the newspaper and in most cases editorial board members collectively decide the stance on any particular issue. Unlike on the news side of the paper, the owner has a say in the positions we take, though that prerogative is rarely invoked. In my decade at The Times, Soon-Shiong (or, previously, other publishers appointed by a corporate owner) had little involvement in the day-to-day opining on local and state issues. Board members take seriously our responsibility to reflect the long-standing priorities and values of the newspaper, particularly when it comes to endorsements.

Every other year, we spend months in preparation for elections. We interview the candidates as well as the groups supporting and opposing the ballot measures. We check out their claims, track down the facts, talk to constituents and experts, and then debate the merits of each choice. We go to candidate forums. Then we write endorsements that allow voters to follow our logic and accept or reject our conclusions. I consider endorsements the most valuable public service we do, especially in the low-profile races, such as superior court judges and community college district trustees, and for the often intentionally confusing ballot initiatives. Thousands of people visit The Times’ endorsement list each election season, which tells me other people find them valuable too.

Some media companies have already scaled back or eliminated endorsements. Newspaper chain Gannett announced Monday that its flagship paper, USA Today, would not make a presidential endorsement. There are plenty of people who think editorial boards and endorsements are anachronisms, remnants of an era when newspaper leaders welcomed the opportunity to influence public opinion. Soon-Shiong and billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post and also blocked a planned Harris endorsement, said that they did not want to influence voters’ decisions in the presidential race.

I think there is value in an editorial board and its endorsements, particularly in an increasingly fractured media landscape full of online pundits and social media influencers who may be paid to pontificate in favor of a candidate or issue. Sure, editorial boards may be traditional, but they are also, for the most part, reliable, their conclusions backed up by reporting and explanation, and developed by journalists who adhere to ethical standards.

All of that logically applies as much to presidential endorsements as it does to solving the homelessness crisis, criminal justice matters and education policy. When we opine on so many other issues, why should we be silent when it comes to one of the most consequential?

Trump is using his racism to regain power. Silence will let him ride bigotry to another term. Editorial writer Tony Barboza details how Trump is escalating his racist and xenophobic attacks on immigrants and nonwhite Americans and his disappointment that institutions, including The Times, will not take a stand. “I fear deeply for our country if Trump succeeds in fanning the flames of racial resentment and hatred to regain power. And it pains me that still others remain undecided or stay silent at a such a perilous moment for our nation.�

The U.S. alone is saddled with an electoral college. How did that happen? Historian Joseph J. Ellis says the electoral college is not working as intended. “As a result, the very outcome the founders most feared, namely election of a demagogue by a gullible cult of true-believers, has been made possible because of the electoral college, which was originally designed to avoid precisely that outcome.�

My grandfather’s teacher, murdered for resisting Nazis, has lessons for Americans today. Letters Editor Paul Thornton writes: “My grandfather and an entire generation of local children grew up knowing that their teacher had been taken and murdered for resisting fascists — for heroism against small men like [Nazi collaborator Vidkun] Quisling, who truly are ‘the enemy within’ as they seek to dismantle the foundations of truth and democracy through warped curricula.�

I’m a doctor in East L.A. and Beverly Hills. I want to treat obesity the same way in both places. But weight-loss drugs, such as Wegovy and Ozempic, are not as readily accessible to people on public health insurance plans, diabetes specialist Anne L. Peters writes. “Of course we also need to keep pressing for better, broader fresh food access, healthier diets and safe places to exercise around the clinic where I work in East L.A. However, use of these newer medications in any part of town can provide true benefit even if lifestyle changes are harder to implement.�

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