LA Times owner upset about reporting on billionaire friend

The owner of the Los Angeles Times tried to dissuade the paper’s business news desk from pursuing a story about another billionaire, report Ryan Mac, Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson.

Mac, Mullin and Robertson report, “The incident weighed on Mr. Merida, two of the people said. The editor had already found himself at odds with the Soon-Shiong family on issues including the newspaper’s budget. Mr. Merida was prepared to potentially resign if the article on Dr. Michelson was ready and Dr. Soon-Shiong blocked its publication, the two people said.

“The newspaper has not recently published any article on Dr. Michelson.

“Laurence Darmiento, the reporter working on the article, said he had continued to cover the story. He said he was aware the story was sensitive, like all articles on wealthy Los Angeles residents, adding that his editors had never told him to stop working on it.

“‘Beyond that, I didn’t have any firsthand knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes,’ Mr. Darmiento said. ‘Just this past week, despite all the turmoil at The Times, I was doing some reporting on it.'”

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