A senior editor at the Los Angeles Times has resigned after the newspaper's owner reportedly blocked the paper’s plans to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review, a trade publication, in an interview that she resigned because the LA Times was remaining silent on the contest in "dangerous times."
"I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent," Ms Garza, the paper’s editorials editor, said.
"In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I'm standing up."
In a post on the social media platform X that did not directly mention the resignation, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board was asked to do a factual analysis of the policies of Ms Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump during their time at the White House.
He said: "The board was asked to provide (its) understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years.
“In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years."
Mr Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper in 2018, said the board "chose to remain silent” in not endorsing a candidate, “and I accepted their decision.
But Ms Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board had intended to endorse Harris and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial.
The LA Times has yet to comment.
The LA Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee said it was "deeply concerned about our owner's decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race."
"We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse," the guild said in a statement.
"We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members."
But Trump's campaign jumped on Ms Garza's departure, saying the state's largest newspaper had declined to endorse the Democratic ticket after backing Ms Harris in her previous races for US Senate and state attorney general.
Her exit comes about 10 months after then-Executive Editor Kevin Merida left the paper in what was called a "mutually agreed" upon departure.
At the time, the news organisation said it had fallen well short of its digital subscriber goals and needed a revenue boost to sustain the newsroom and its digital operations.
