It is business sense, not politics.

Then again, they are not journalists.

Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told me in a phone conversation. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

On October 11, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper for $500 million in 2018, informed the paper’s editorial board that the Times would not be making an endorsement for president. The message was conveyed to Garza by Terry Tang, the paper’s editor.

The board had intended to endorse Harris, Garza told me, and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial. She had hoped to get feedback on the outline and was taken aback upon being told that the newspaper would not take a position.

Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement - Columbia Journalism Review

Newspapers have lost the veneer of respect they once had. And it is just a veneer, nothing very deep which gets stripped easily if your readers start detecting unchecked partisanship. And yes, there are newspapers that have been endorsing presidential candidates for ages, but once again we are in different times and it is no longer a question of a friendly difference of opinion among friends, but the fell of outright propaganda delivered to your door and paid out of your pocket.

The once mighty Miami Herald, my former birdcage liner, had not endorsed presidential candidates for decades, but the editors went all faux-righteous for the 2000 elections and declared their unchecked favoritism for Al Gore. And just to make things worse, they were the main force driving the “recount” effort to push the election in favor of their Chose One & Father of the Internet and eventually after three recounts, they had to claim defeat. Thier effort was so obviously partisan that they began to bleed subscribers till they were forced to undergo massive staffing cuts and eventually sell their flagship building in Biscayne Bay and machinery because they could not afford them. Last I cared about them, they were in a small office building in Doral and the paper was being printed by a third party.

And that bring us to the L.A. Times. A report from a year ago:

LA WATCHDOG - On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times published information on its average daily circulation, and it was not pretty.

Over the last twelve months, the total paid distribution dropped by 17%, from 150,000 to 125,000 copies. This was not unexpected given the sorry state of the newspaper business.

What was unexpected was the 4% drop in paid digital subscriptions, from 314,000 to 303,000, an area of expected growth. This is contrary to the July announcement by The Times that it had 550,000 digital subscriptions.

Los Angeles Times: What’s the Strategy Now that Circulation Hits New Low?

If I spent half a billion dollars in a product, I would expect if not an immediate profit, at least not a loss of that caliber. But journos are pampered children who think they are owed a salary just because they are journalists regardless if the articles they write do not move sales upwards.

So, the leaving of Mariel Garza is simply less work for the paper’s H.R. department. I will not be surprised if soon we see a note about other journalists and editors being let go and other belt-tightening measures.

But the laid off journos could always learn how to code.