Did 'L.A. Times' and NBC pull punches to appease Trump? : NPR

David Folkenflik

Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, shown in 2012, blocked his paper's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The editorials editor resigned, saying the decision made the paper look "craven." Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images hide caption

Recent episodes involving major U.S. news organizations have stoked fears that outlets are preemptively self-censoring coverage that could offend former President Donald Trump, who remains neck-and-neck in the polls with Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of Election Day.

“One of the central media stories in the U.S. right now is the people who run big media companies making accommodations for a second Trump presidency and thinking about how to avoid antagonizing him,” Ben Smith, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the news site Semafor, tells NPR.

Semafor’s Max Tani first broke the news that the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, intervened to block the publication of an editorial endorsing Harris. The Trump campaign swiftly shared the Semafor story with supporters.

The L.A. Times’ editorials editor Mariel Garza resigned, saying Soon-Shiong’s decision made the paper look “craven and hypocritical.” The newspaper has endorsed Harris, a Californian who lives in Los Angeles, for public office before; the paper’s editorial pages have routinely condemned Trump’s character, policies and record. Shortly after Garza quit, two more members of the editorial board resigned.

Last month, in endorsing state and local candidates, the L.A. Times editorial page said voters would confront “the most consequential election in a generation” — though, it added, it was “not just talking about the presidential race.”

Publishers and owners have the right to weigh in on endorsements, of course, and often do so. This time, Soon-Shiong says he wanted something different.

On the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, he wrote that the assignment had been to provide “clear and non-partisan information side-by-side.”

“The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation,” Soon-Shiong wrote. “In addition, the Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years.”

Semafor Editor Smith noted that Soon-Shiong, like many media owners, has other business interests that can be directly affected by government actions. As a physician and medical inventor, Soon-Shiong has medical products subject to review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and applies for patents to federal regulators as well.

“If you have a lot of exposure to heavily regulated industries, I’d be very surprised if it’s something that media executives are not thinking about,” Smith says.

In addition, according to Stat News, which covers science, health care and medicine, Soon-Shiong unsuccessfully sought a senior role overseeing U.S. health care at the outset of the Trump administration in 2017.

The Los Angeles Times did not respond to requests for comment beyond Soon-Shiong’s statement.

On the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly threatened to strip broadcast licenses from three big television networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC – in retribution for moderators fact-checking him and running mate JD Vance during debates and for news coverage that Trump claims is unfair.

That’s not how such federal regulation works: the Federal Communications Commission licenses local television and radio stations. But the three broadcast networks own 80 local TV stations among them, making those licenses a pressure point.

As CNN first reported, CBS News has resisted Trump's threats of legal action to force the release of its full, unedited interview with Harris.

A documentary based on the reporting of NBC and MSNBC Correspondent Jacob Soboroff about Trump's border policy will air after the presidential election. Colin Young-Wolff/Colin Young-Wolff/Invision/AP/Invision hide caption

“For the past decade, Donald Trump has been running a campaign against the media straight out of the playbook that authoritarians have used around the world, which is to threaten retaliation against news organizations if they don’t provide him with favorable enough coverage,” says Ian Bassin, an attorney and founder of the not-for-profit advocacy group Protect Democracy. “We are seeing now the seeds of that campaign bearing fruit.”

Three journalists at left-leaning MSNBC told NPR that colleagues were concerned that a documentary produced by NBC News Studios about the effects of Trump’s policies on migrant families separated at the southern U.S. border will not be shown until early December, a month after Election Day. (The staffers asked for anonymity in order to discuss internal network matters.)

MSNBC star Rachel Maddow has been among the film’s biggest boosters internally. It is based on the reporting of NBC and MSNBC Correspondent Jacob Soboroff and directed by the noted filmmaker Errol Morris. Morris has publicly questioned the network’s decision.

“Why is my movie not being shown on NBC prior to the election?” Morris tweeted earlier this month. “It is not a partisan movie. It's about a policy that was disgusting and should not be allowed to happen again. Make your own inferences.”

NBC News executives rejected the idea that political considerations had played any role in its programming decision about the film. MSNBC has shown another film, called “From Russia with Lev,” about the allegations against Trump from an ally turned critic, Lev Parnas. Top MSNBC hosts have called Trump a “fascist” repeatedly in recent days, based on caustic characterizations from several of Trump’s former top aides.

In a statement, NBC News says it is proud of Soboroff’s film, noting it is based on reporting that previously aired on NBC and MSNBC.

“We are fortunate that even amid this challenging documentary climate, we have been able to obtain significant visibility at several prestigious film festivals and an expanded theatrical run, which qualifies it for major awards, including the Oscars, ahead of its television debut soon,” it said.

Soboroff has been on the network frequently talking about related matters. NBC News Studios says it could not air the documentary while it is being shown at various film festivals and theaters. MSNBC officials concluded it would be better not to interrupt its intensifying political coverage immediately before Election Day.

The Washington Post's investigative reporters have been in the vanguard of exposing wrongdoing by Trump and his associates while in power. Its editorial section, which is operated separately, has been sharply critical of the former president.

Yet less than two weeks before Election Day, the Post’s opinion-section staff does not know whether the paper will run an editorial endorsement for president, as first reported by Status and confirmed to NPR by two people at the Post with knowledge. (They asked for anonymity to talk about internal matters at the paper.)

The last time The Post did not make an endorsement for president in the general election was 1988, according to a review of archives. The Post has been endorsing candidates for local office this fall. The New York Times endorsed Harris on Sept. 30.

Post owner Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon and space company Blue Origin, both of which have contracts with the federal government. During the Trump administration, the Pentagon had to scrap a $10 billion cloud computing contract with Microsoft after Amazon filed a lawsuit alleging it had been passed over to punish Bezos for the Post’s reporting.

Trump had said publicly that he, personally, had been reviewing the contract, which Amazon had previously been expected to win. Ultimately, four companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, were awarded parts of the contract.

Bezos's new chief executive and publisher at the Post is Will Lewis, who has conservative bonafides. Lewis held the same role at Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal; served as the editor of the London-based Telegraph, which is closely allied with the Tory party; and was a consultant to Conservative Boris Johnson when Johnson was prime minister. Colleagues have told NPR that Bezos selected Lewis in part for his ability to get along with powerful conservative political figures, including Murdoch.

Corporate spokespersons for the Washington Post did not respond to requests for comment.

“Outlets from the Los Angeles Times to perhaps even the Washington Post are engaging in what the historian Timothy Snyder has called anticipatory obedience — pulling back from their obligation to tell the truth in order to placate the tyrant so he doesn’t come after them,” Protect Democracy's Bassin says.