LAT Guild statement: Our commitment to journalistic integrity

Journalists of the Los Angeles Times are committed to shining a light on injustice, exposing wrongdoing, and seeking the facts. We speak truth to power, regardless of which party is in power.

Recently, the newspaper’s owner has publicly suggested his staff harbors bias, without offering evidence or examples. The statements came after the owner blocked a presidential endorsement by the newspaper’s editorial board, then unfairly blamed editorial board staffers for his decision. 

The statements of Dr. Soon-Shiong in the press and on social media reflect his own opinions and do not shape reporting by our member-journalists.

Our members — and all Times staffers — abide by a strict set of ethics guidelines, which call for fairness, precision, transparency, vigilance against bias, and an earnest search to understand all sides of an issue. Those longstanding principles will continue guiding our work.

The Guild has secured strong ethics protections for our members, including the right to withhold one’s byline, and we will firmly guard against any effort to improperly or unfairly alter our reporting.

– Los Angeles Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee