Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, said this week his paper made "a mistake" when it endorsed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in her 2022 election campaign, continuing his criticism of the embattled mayor.
"We'll accept some blame. At the LA Times, we endorsed Karen Bass. I think, right now, upfront, that's a mistake, and we admit that," Soon-Shiong told Monday's "The Morning Meeting" a podcast by 2WAY Interactive.
Last week, Soon-Shiong criticized Bass over her leadership during the wildfire crisis that has engulfed some of the city's most prominent neighborhoods and killed 24 people as of Tuesday afternoon.
"Fires in LA are sadly no surprise, yet the Mayor cut LA Fire Department's budget by $23M," Soon-Shiong wrote in a social media post last week. "And reports of empty fire hydrants raise serious questions. Competence matters."
Soon-Shiong described the fires as a "wake up call" for the newspaper, saying: "As a paper, we have responsibility to the entire community, whether you're left, right, Democrat, Republican. Really, our obligation is to provide, inform and inspire, educate and almost create the paper as a media utility."