Robert Greene and Karin Klein from Los Angeles Times joined editorial page editor Mariel Garza on Thursday in leaving the paper following its decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in the 2024 race.

A Semaphore That’s what a report published on Tuesday claimed Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the newspaper’s the editors from endorsing a candidate midway through the board’s preparation to approve.

“I’m resigning because I want to make it clear that I’m not okay with us being silent,” Garza said in an interview with Columbia Journalism Review on Wednesday. “In dangerous times, honest people must stand up. That’s how I stand up.” In addition to being editorial editor, Garza was a member of the newspaper’s editorial board.

Greene was an editorial writer for Timescovering water, drought, criminal justice reform, policing, mental health, and Los Angeles County government. He won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his work covering the Los Angeles criminal justice system. Klein is a former Times board member who wrote editorials on education, environment, food and science.

Hugo Martin, member of the unity council for L.A. Times guild, said in a statement The Hollywood Reporter that “the recent firings of talented journalists are a tremendous loss to the newsroom and the newsroom in particular” and that “we stand with our colleagues who have been wrongly and unfairly blamed for this decision not to endorse.”

Garza’s interview with CJR claimed that the paper’s editorial board had been poised to endorse Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for president, and that she had already begun writing an editorial summary announcing the decision. In her interview, Garza admitted she didn’t think support would waver Times readers’ voting decision, given that Times is a “very liberal newspaper,” but said the endorsement was important because “this is a time where you speak your conscience no matter what.”

In a message to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday afternoon, Times owner Soon-Shiong said he had offered the editors the chance to write “a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies of EACH candidate during their terms in the White House, and how those policies affected the nation.” He had also asked the editors to present their vision for how policies outlined during the candidates’ campaigns might play out over the next four years if elected. “This way, with this clear and partisan information side by side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years,” he wrote.

“Instead of going this route as suggested, the editors chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please #vote,” added Soon-Shiong.

THR has reached out to Times for comment.