Why did the L.A. Times
editorialize against Prop 40?
Don’t be fooled. Know the facts before you trust the L.A. Times’ opinion.
Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax only on California billionaires to protect California healthcare, keeping care affordable and accessible for millions. [14] [26]
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong is himself a billionaire. Forbes listed his real-time net worth at about $10.3 billion in September 2026. If that figure matched the measure’s statutory net-worth calculation, Soon-Shiong would owe about $515 million if Prop 40 passes. Coincidentally, that is a similar amount to the roughly $500 million he paid to acquire the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune in 2018. [15] [17] [26]
On September 6, 2026, after a 525-day gap between listed editorials, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial urging a no vote on Proposition 40. Before believing its claims, follow what happened to the paper’s editorial board—and look at who’s behind the money opposing Prop 40. [8] [10] [12]
SEPTEMBER 6, 2026: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES SPEAKS.
A newspaper that had stopped publishing editorials
returned to oppose Prop 40.
On September 6, 2026, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial urging a “no” vote on Proposition 40. [8]
Three days later, former L.A. Times editorial editor Mariel Garza wrote that the newspaper had gone nearly 18 months without an editorial and no longer had the editorial-writing staff that had existed before the 2024 presidential-endorsement dispute. She asked a basic question: who wrote the Prop 40 editorial, and what process produced it? [9]
The public record makes that question concrete. In October 2024, owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. Three editorial-board members then resigned in protest. Over the following months, other members moved to newsroom roles or took buyouts until the last remaining editorial writer announced her departure. [5] [16]
THE OWNERSHIP TRAIL
A billionaire owns the platform.
California voters deserve that context.
The Los Angeles Times is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong, the physician, biotech entrepreneur, and media owner who bought the paper and the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million in 2018. Forbes lists Soon-Shiong as a billionaire, with a real-time fortune of about $10.3 billion on September 10, 2026. [2] [17]
Using Forbes’ roughly $10.3 billion estimate only as an illustration, a 5% tax on Soon-Shiong’s vast wealth would equal about $515 million. The actual amount, if any, would depend on Proposition 40’s statutory definitions, exclusions, debts, and valuation rules; Forbes’ real-time net-worth estimate is not a tax assessment. [17] [26]
As of September 10, 2026, the Times’ public editorial-board page only listed Patrick Soon-Shiong and Executive Editor Terry Tang. That same page shows the Prop 40 editorial on September 6, 2026 immediately after an editorial dated March 30, 2025—a gap of 525 days, or nearly 18 months. [10]
Patrick
Soon-Shiong
Billionaire physician, biotech entrepreneur, and media owner
Nant
Capital
His investment firm
Los Angeles
Times
Seller: Tronc
2018 acquisition route. [2]
Who’s on the L.A. Times editorial board now?
The Los Angeles Times’ own public editorial-board page lists just two people: Patrick Soon-Shiong and Executive Editor Terry Tang. [10]
Garza, who previously ran the editorial operation, wrote on September 9 that the paper no longer had a functioning editorial board or editorial writer in the conventional sense. [9]
What about new investors?
The company’s investor page identifies Soon-Shiong as chairman and CEO of LA Times Media Group. It describes a private offering and a targeted future public listing. An announced listing is not proof that editorial control has changed. [11]
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: WHAT HAPPENED, IN ORDER
Owner intervention.
Protest resignations. Then silence.
October 11, 2024. That is where the recent story of the Los Angeles Times editorial board changes. The board had planned to endorse Kamala Harris for president. Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong stopped the endorsement. What followed is documented by the Times itself, the Associated Press, Columbia Journalism Review, and former members of the Opinion staff.
-
Ownership
-
Owner intervention
-
Protest resignation
-
Two more protest resignations
Robert Greene and Karin Klein resign the next day.
The two editorial writers also leave over the blocked endorsement. Greene says he resigned in response to the refusal to take a stand and rejects the owner’s description that the board itself chose silence. The Los Angeles Times later reports plainly that three members of the editorial board resigned over the move. [4] [16]
-
Public fallout
The Times reports the resignations and subscriber backlash itself.
The newspaper’s own coverage says the owner’s decision prompted the three resignations and thousands of subscription cancellations. Soon-Shiong tells the Times he believed not endorsing was less divisive and says he wanted policy analysis instead; the resigning editorial writers say that was not the choice they had made. [16]
-
Editorial staff disperses
Tony Barboza leaves the editorial board for the newsroom.
CJR later reports that Barboza, who wrote environmental editorials, returned to newsroom reporting in December and subsequently took a buyout. This was not reported as a protest resignation, but it further reduced the editorial staff. [5]
-
Owner direction
The Guardian reports that Soon-Shiong asked the editorial board to “take a break” from writing about Trump.
The Guardian reported that Soon-Shiong had asked the editorial board to pause writing about Donald Trump and described additional owner-directed changes to the Opinion operation. The report followed the earlier blocked presidential endorsement and staff resignations. [24]
-
Buyout
Longtime letters editor Paul Thornton takes a buyout.
Thornton later writes that he left as Soon-Shiong was dismantling the Opinion section and undercutting editorial independence. [6]
-
Last editorial writer
Carla Hall, the last remaining editorial writer, announces her buyout.
CJR describes the sequence after the Harris decision as a staff exodus. Hall says she did not know what the future held for a one-woman editorial board. CJR also reports that deputy editorials editor Kerry Cavanaugh had left for a public-affairs job. [5]
-
Owner’s direction
Soon-Shiong publicly describes a different direction for Opinion.
In an interview covered by POLITICO, Soon-Shiong criticizes the section’s political orientation and its treatment of Donald Trump, while calling for a different approach to opinion and fact. [7]
-
Last editorial before the gap
The paper publishes the last editorial Garza identifies before Prop 40.
Garza identifies a March 30, 2025 homelessness editorial as the last editorial before the Proposition 40 piece. During the next 18 months, many local, state, and national issues arose that could have warranted editorials or endorsements, but the Times did not publish any editorials. [9] [10]
-
Another newspaper editorial
The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board also urges a no vote.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published an editorial opposing Proposition 40 before the Los Angeles Times editorial appeared. This is a separate editorial position and is included here to place the Times editorial in the broader media record. [25]
-
525 days later
-
Former editor responds
Garza asks who wrote it and how it was produced.
Garza writes that the paper has no editorial writer and no functioning editorial board in the form readers previously knew. She says the public board roster contains only Soon-Shiong and Executive Editor Terry Tang. She also reported that Prop 40 proponents told her the Times did not meet with them despite a request for a meeting. [9] [10]
THE SEQUENCE, WITHOUT THE SPIN
First the owner stopped an endorsement. Then three editorial-board members resigned in protest. Other editorial staff left. The last editorial writer took a buyout. The editorial voice went quiet for 525 days. Then it returned to oppose Proposition 40.
Each step above is tied to a contemporaneous or first-person source. The record documents the sequence; it does not establish who authored the September 6 Prop 40 editorial.The question the timeline leaves open
Who drafted, edited, and approved the September 6, 2026 Proposition 40 editorial? Garza says she asked around and still did not know. That is an authorship and process question the public record reviewed here does not answer. [9]
THE MAJOR DISCLOSED OPPOSITION MONEY
Look who’s behind the money.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission identifies the largest disclosed contributors to Proposition 40 opposition committees. The four major entries below account for $83.95 million on the FPPC snapshot checked October 1, 2026. [12]
Soon-Shiong’s ownership of the Los Angeles Times and the opposition campaign’s financing are separate records. Reading them together does not establish coordination. It does, however, let readers distinguish the newspaper owner’s personal financial exposure under the measure from the separate billionaires and organizations that have contributed money to defeat it. The Yes on 40 campaign argues that Soon-Shiong is using his status and extreme wealth to try to control the narrative and convince Californians that billionaires know what is best for everyday working Californians. [12] [17]
Snapshot checked October 1, 2026. This is not a total-spending figure and does not assign an intermediary committee’s money to any individual donor.
| Contributor | Listed amount | Recipient committee |
|---|---|---|
| Building a Better CaliforniaPolitical committee whose FPPC-listed top donors include billionaire Google cofounder Sergey Brin and billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr. | $73,500,000 | No on Prop 40 · #1492108 |
| Ripple LabsBlockchain and payments company co-founded by Chris Larsen. | $5,000,000 | Golden State Promise · #1486695 |
| Chris LarsenBillionaire cofounder and executive chairman of Ripple. | $5,000,000 | Golden State Promise · #1486695 |
| California Business Roundtable Issues PACBusiness-backed political action committee; the FPPC identifies billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel among its top donors. | $450,000 | Golden State Promise · #1486695 |
Who these contributors are
A political committee whose FPPC-listed top donors are two billionaires.
The FPPC identifies Sergey Brin and L. John Doerr III as the committee’s top donors. Brin is the billionaire cofounder of Google and a board member and controlling shareholder of Alphabet; Forbes listed his real-time net worth at roughly $250.5 billion on September 10, 2026. Doerr is the billionaire chairman of venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins; Forbes listed his fortune at roughly $22.4 billion that day. [12] [18] [19]
The FPPC’s “top donors to contributor” label identifies who is behind the committee; it does not tell us how much of this specific $73.5 million transfer came from either individual.
A crypto company and its billionaire cofounder each gave $5 million.
Ripple Labs is a blockchain and payments company. Ripple identifies Chris Larsen as its cofounder and executive chairman. The FPPC lists a $5 million contribution from Ripple Labs and a separate $5 million contribution from Larsen. Forbes lists Larsen as a billionaire, with a real-time fortune of about $8.4 billion on September 10, 2026. [12] [20] [22]
The FPPC names billionaire Peter Thiel and Kim DeGeorge as its top donors.
Peter Thiel is a billionaire technology investor, cofounder of Palantir, and early Facebook investor; Forbes listed his real-time net worth at about $35 billion on September 10, 2026. Kim DeGeorge is an individual donor whom campaign-finance data lists among the PAC’s largest 2026 contributors. [12] [21] [23]
The opposition campaign has major money connected to billionaire donors.
The official FPPC snapshot directly lists billionaire Chris Larsen as a $5 million Prop 40 opposition contributor, and it identifies billionaires Sergey Brin, John Doerr, and Peter Thiel as top donors behind committees that contributed to the opposition. [12] [18] [19] [20] [21]
These campaign-finance records are separate from the Los Angeles Times ownership and editorial-process records. None of the sources reviewed here establishes that an opposition committee funded, commissioned or coordinated the Times editorial.
LOOK AT WHO SUPPORTS THE MEASURE
A newspaper endorsement
is not the only voice in the debate.
One newspaper doesn’t speak for California. The Yes on 40 campaign lists hundreds of elected officials and community organizations as supporters. Supporters have cited healthcare costs, staffing reductions, service cuts, and access to care among their reasons for backing the measure. The campaign says more community leaders and groups are choosing to vote YES as Californians face sky-high premiums, local hospital service reductions, and longer waits for care. The names below are endorsements of Proposition 40—not endorsements of this article or its interpretation of the L.A. Times. [13] [14]
California Democratic Party
Published campaign endorsement [13]
Bernie Sanders
Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]
Ro Khanna
Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]
AFSCME California
Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]
SEIU United Healthcare Workers West
Campaign sponsor and listed supporter [13]
Disability Voices United
Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]
See the campaign’s endorsements page
The former L.A. Times journalists in the timeline are not being presented as Prop 40 endorsers.
THE UNANSWERED PROCESS QUESTIONS
The Los Angeles Times hasn’t answered these questions.
Who wrote it?
Who drafted, reported, edited, and approved the September 6 Proposition 40 editorial?
What was the process?
Who was consulted, and did the editorial operation consider the campaign’s request for a meeting reported by Garza?
What role did the owner play?
What role, if any, did Patrick Soon-Shiong play in selecting the topic, reviewing the text or approving the recommendation?
Garza’s September 9 account says she did not know who wrote the editorial or how it was produced. The Los Angeles Times has not publicly answered the authorship and process questions documented here. [9]
What is documented:
owner intervention in 2024; three protest resignations; the subsequent collapse of the staffed editorial board; a 525-day gap; a new Prop 40 editorial; and major opposition funding connected to several billionaires.
What is not documented: who authored the September 6 editorial or any coordination between the Los Angeles Times and an opposition committee.
THE SOURCE RECORD
Don’t just take our word for it.
Source numbers throughout the article lead here. This is the source record we used to build the page: the Los Angeles Times’ own reporting and editorial, first-person accounts from former Times editors, independent journalism, official campaign-finance disclosures, company records, and other cited primary sources. Don’t just take our word for it—open the sources and inspect the record yourself.
- 01PBS SoCal Historical reporting
Timeline: History of the Los Angeles Times
October 9, 2018
First publication and the Times Mirror / Tribune history.
- 02Business Insider Reported ownership history
The LA Times’ billionaire owner says he plans to take the paper public
Aditi Bharade · July 22, 2025
Nant Capital, the 2018 acquisition, and the subsequent public-listing announcement.
- 03Columbia Journalism Review Reporting and direct interview
Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement
Sewell Chan · October 23, 2024
The October 11 instruction, Garza’s resignation, and the owner’s explanation.
- 04Associated Press Independent reporting
AP report: two more L.A. Times editorial writers resign
October 25, 2024
Robert Greene and Karin Klein’s October 24 resignations.
- 05Columbia Journalism Review Reporting and direct interview
Last Member of LA Times Editorial Board Takes Buyout
Sewell Chan · February 26, 2025
Carla Hall’s buyout announcement; Kerry Cavanaugh and Tony Barboza’s different departures.
- 06San Francisco Chronicle First-person account
I read nearly a million letters from Californians. What it taught me about the state of truth and objectivity
Paul Thornton · March 13, 2025
Thornton says he took a buyout the previous month: February 2025.
- 07POLITICO Reporting on owner’s statements
L.A. Times owner’s interview with Tucker Carlson
March 26, 2025
Soon-Shiong’s criticism of the Opinion section’s political direction.
- 08Los Angeles Times Original opposing editorial
Vote no on Prop. 40. It ignores education, housing, and safety
Times Editorial · September 6, 2026
The source readers should inspect for the newspaper’s own argument.
- 09Golden State Report Former editor’s commentary
The L.A. Times’ undead “editorial board” rises to go after Prop. 40
Mariel Garza · September 9, 2026
Editorial gap, authorship questions and her attributed account of the campaign’s meeting request. Prepared from the supplied article copy.
- 10Los Angeles Times Publisher’s own roster
About the Times Editorial Board
Undated page · accessed September 10, 2026
Roster checked September 10, 2026.
- 11LA Times Media Group Company’s own disclosure
LA Times Media Group investor information
Undated page · accessed September 10, 2026
Leadership and the distinction between a private offering and a proposed public listing.
- 12California Fair Political Practices Commission Official disclosure summary
November 2026 General Election — Top Contributors
Live disclosure summary · checked October 1, 2026
Proposition 40 contributor tables. Current FPPC snapshot checked October 1, 2026.
- 13Yes on 40 Campaign endorsement announcement
Billionaire Tax wins “YES” vote endorsement from California Democratic Party
August 2, 2026
The party endorsement and the named coalition supporting the measure, not this article.
- 14Yes on 40 Campaign’s own information
Yes on 40 campaign homepage
Undated page · accessed September 10, 2026
Current campaign identity, navigation, supporters, and paid-for disclosure.
- 15Los Angeles Times Contemporaneous transaction report
L.A. Times reports the proposed sale
February 7, 2018
The sale announcement, not the closing date.
- 16Los Angeles Times The Times’ own reporting
L.A. Times owner’s decision not to endorse in presidential race sparks resignations, questions
James Rainey · October 25, 2024
Owner intervention, three protest resignations, subscriber backlash, and competing accounts of the decision.
- 17Forbes Billionaire profile
Patrick Soon-Shiong
Real-time profile · checked September 10, 2026
Billionaire status, wealth estimate, and 2018 Los Angeles Times purchase.
- 18Forbes Billionaire profile
Sergey Brin
Real-time profile · checked September 10, 2026
Google cofounder, Alphabet role, and billionaire wealth estimate.
- 19Forbes Billionaire profile
John Doerr
Real-time profile · checked September 10, 2026
Kleiner Perkins chairman and billionaire wealth estimate.
- 20Forbes Billionaire profile
Chris Larsen
Real-time profile · checked September 10, 2026
Ripple cofounder and billionaire wealth estimate.
- 21Forbes Billionaire profile
Peter Thiel
Real-time profile · checked September 10, 2026
Technology investor and billionaire wealth estimate.
- 22Ripple Company leadership page
Ripple Leadership
Accessed September 10, 2026
Ripple identifies Chris Larsen as cofounder and executive chairman.
- 23Transparency USA Campaign-finance aggregation
California Business Roundtable Issues PAC
2026 cycle · accessed September 10, 2026
Identifies Kim DeGeorge as an individual contributor and lists major PAC contributors.
- 24The Guardian Media reporting
LA Times owner asks editorial board to ‘take a break’ from writing about Trump – report
December 18, 2024
Reports Soon-Shiong’s direction to the editorial board and other changes to the Opinion operation.
- 25San Diego Union-Tribune Opposing editorial
Vote no on ‘billionaires tax’ to prevent economic chaos, preserve jobs
Editorial Board · August 28, 2026
Republished copy of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial opposing Proposition 40; the newspaper’s site was not directly accessible in this review environment.
- 26California Secretary of State Official voter guide
Proposition 40: Official Title and Summary
2026 General Election
Official summary of the one-time tax, billionaire threshold, and allocation of tax revenue.
How to read this page
This is Yes on 40 campaign commentary, not an independent fact-check. Historical events are distinguished from our interpretation. The meeting account remains attributed to Garza; the current ownership information is not a complete capitalization table. Campaign-finance figures are taken from the FPPC summary, not an audit of every underlying filing. No claim of a paid or coordinated editorial is established by the sources reviewed.
Corrections supported by a source can be sent to Press@YesOn40.com.