The Los Angeles Times is refusing to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election. It's the first time since 2008 that the paper has refused to endorse any candidate for president.

"But according to two people familiar with the situation, executive editor Terry Tang told editorial board staff earlier this month that the paper would not be endorsing a candidate in the presidential election this cycle, a decision that came from the paper’s owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a doctor who made his fortune in the healthcare industry," Semafor's Max Tani wrote.

There is controversy attached to this decision, which was made at the last minute by Soon-Shiong, His non-endorsement went against the wishes of the L.A. Times editorial board, which had been prepared to endorse Kamala Harris.

An L.A. Times spokesperson told Semafor, “We do not comment on internal discussions or decisions about editorials or endorsements.”

Soon-Shiong's daughter Nika is a pro-Palestinian, radical left activist who has coddled the far-left staffers in the newsroom, emboldening their coverage of the Gaza war and other far-left causes.

It wouldn’t be the first time since he bought the paper in 2018 that owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong had overruled the wishes of the paper’s editorial board. In 2020, the paper met with Democratic candidates for president for interviews with the intention of making a pick in the race. But after deciding to endorse Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic presidential primary, at the last minute Soon-Shiong overruled its leadership and said there would be no endorsement in the primary race (the paper endorsed Joe Biden in the general election).

The paper also raised eyebrows over several local endorsements it made in recent election cycles of candidates supported by Soon-Shiong’s daughter Nika, whose progressive politics on racial justice and the war in Gaza have at some points heartened and emboldened some on staff and and other points caused friction. At the time, the paper told Politico that there was no involvement from Nika Soon-Shiong in the endorsements.

That's not likely. Reportedly, Patrick leans heavily on Nika when it comes to newsroom politics, which in the modern age has a huge impact on the editorial stance of a newspaper.

In February, when a rumor of the L.A. Times being sold surfaced, staffers panicked. It was Nika Soon-Shiong who calmed the storm and brought what was shaping up to be a revolt under control.

“It felt important to speak out because of how disruptive that kind of misinformation can be to people who have entrusted us with the stability of the paper,” Nika said in an email to The Daily Beast. “It’s a lot easier to plant rumors that something might happen than to assure people it won’t, so a Tweet seemed like a very small thing to do.”

Still, it wouldn’t be the first time that the LA Times has declined to endorse candidates in a presidential general election. From the mid-1970s until 2008, the paper declined to endorse any presidential candidates following internal dissent over the decision to endorse Richard Nixon for reelection months after the Watergate break in, a decision the publisher Otis Chandler said he later came to regret. Before that, the Times had a near century-long streak of Republican presidential endorsements dating back to the paper’s founding in 1881.

It's a surprise that the Times won't endorse Harris. Why publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong yanked the editorial board's endorsement at literally the last minute is unknown, except that he made billions in the healthcare industry and may not have liked Harris's past support for "Medicare for all."