The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times abruptly ended an interview with “so-called reporter” Oliver Darcy after the former CNN reporter pushed him over his decision to hire pro-Trump commentator Scott Jennings to serve on the left-leaning editorial board. broad inclined sheet.
Darcy, who launched his own independent newsletter Status after leaving CNN in August, reported Tuesday that his phone interview with Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong was shut down after “the conversation turned combative.”
Last month, Soon-Shiong blocked his editorial board from publishing an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris — similar to the move by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. In both cases, editorial staff resigned in protest and readers canceled their subscriptions in anger.
Both Soon-Shiong and Bezos have expressed their desire to diversify their respective editorial boards and opinion pages by hiring more right-leaning voices.
Darcy reached out to Soon-Shiong in response to an X post in which the Times publisher wrote that he brought Jennings onto his paper’s editorial board because he wanted to fill it with “experts who have balanced, thoughtful views.”
According to Darcy, he contacted the Times for comment on Soon-Shiong’s X post. A personal spokesman for Soon-Shiong then contacted Darcy to see if he wanted to interview the billionaire directly.
The phone interview would be on the record and there would be no restrictions, according to Status. A summary of the article was reported by Mediaite.
“The interview began warmly enough,” wrote Darcy. “I thanked Soon-Shiong for his time and asked him what he intended to do with the Times editorial board.”
Soon-Shiong responded that he wanted a revamped editorial board that he would build “from scratch” to represent “all voices” that would include “some real critical thinkers, thoughtful people, on the board ” who “can express opinion, but I hope people express opinion based on facts.”
The Times owner praised Jennings for his “interactions” on CNN, where he is often outnumbered “five to one” against the “left.” Soon-Shiong said he was impressed with how Jennings was “respectful” and “thoughtful” in expressing his point of view on air.
But Darcy took issue with Soon-Shiong, saying it was “highly debatable” whether Jennings was “respectful of his fellow panellists”.
Darcy then criticized Jennings for his “dishonest” comment. He wrote that Jennings’ career “depends on protecting a politician (President-elect Donald Trump) who subjects the people to an endless stream of lies and conspiracy theories.”
“It was when I tried to broach the subject with Soon-Shiong that our conversation turned combative,” Darcy wrote.
According to Darcy, Soon-Shiong said it was the reporter’s “opinion” that Trump “lies more than other politicians.”
Darcy wrote that Soon-Shiong “apparently did not appreciate” his claim that “the depths of [Trump’s] the dishonesty has been well documented by fact-based news organizations.”
According to Darcy, the owner of the Times “scolded” him for “a statement”.
“If you want to talk about Donald Trump, that’s not the conversation I started,” Darcy reportedly told a “clearly upset” Soon-Shiong.
Darcy, who noticed that the interview had “definitely gone sideways”, tried to “get things back on track” and “bring it back”.
But Soon-Shiong “interjected once again” and slammed Darcy as a “so-called reporter,” according to Darcy.
When Darcy then asked Soon-Shiong about “MAGA voices” that could be added to the editorial board, Soon-Shiong’s spokesperson, who was listening in on the conversation, interjected: “I think we’ve answered almost all the questions you have .
“No, to be honest, you haven’t answered all the questions I have,” Darcy said to the spokesperson.
But Soon-Shiong’s representative “ended the interview, signaling them [his boss] to hang up.”
The Post has sought comment from Darcy and Soon-Shiong.
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