Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong on Rebuilding the L.A. Times and Trump’s Success in the Middle East

Dr. Patrick Soon-shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, is going to join us. You've heard me make this point before both here and on Next Up. The nation doesn't have very many news organizations with economy of scale, with reach, with history and tradition to do what news organizations need to do. Two main things: hold powerful interests accountable to the public interest and explain the world in a compelling way to its audience. And I've said before, I doubt anybody's going to start a new one that reaches that scale. You've heard me say this about CBS News and how pleased I am that Bari Weiss is going to try to restore CBS to those two great traditions, hold all powerful interests accountable to public interest, and tell the great stories of our time. And in the case of Los Angeles Times, we have one of the maybe a dozen if you wanted to be generous organizations that historically and currently have the capacity to do those important things at scale. Smaller independent media can do those things in a small way, but to be global in the reach and distribution to do the kind of things that big organizations can do to hold powerful interest public interest, we don't have very many and one of the few that we have is Los Angeles Times. So joining us now to talk about the news of the day but also about the important developments with the Los Angeles Times and its growth as a brand is my co-host on Cancer Decoded and someone who hasn't been with us in a while. So couldn't be more excited to have Dr. Patrick Soon-shiong back. Doctor, welcome back.

Yeah, you were in the Middle East not too long ago with President Trump. People may have seen you on his trip. So talk about the through line from that trip you were on it with a number of American leaders in all sorts of realms to today. What did you see on that trip that again where you see the continuity to what's happened now?

What would you say to the people I hear some people say the reason Donald Trump did this was the time was ripe that this couldn't happen under President Biden or President Obama because the time wasn't ripe as opposed to what President Trump's team says which is he made the time right. How would you weigh in on that debate?

Yeah. So, I want to pick up on that theme and transition to talking about you and what you're doing with the paper or the brand of I should say the LA Times Media Group. So, I grew up in Washington DC. My father worked in the government. I went to an Ivy League school. I've never lived anywhere but Boston, Washington, and New York. And despite that, I understand the age we're in. I believe we're not in the age where we should trust the experts. Career diplomats never did what Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, not career diplomats, not people who grew up steeped in the Council on Foreign Relations. They never did what those guys did. And then when I hear people criticize you or Bari Weiss, and they say, 'Well, these aren't the standard types of people who have run media organizations before, so they're not experts. They couldn't do a good job.' And I say, 'Well, let's look at the record of the experts. They didn't do a good job.' So now we turn to you and what you're doing with the LA Times Media Group. So exciting to me because you're bringing a perspective of someone successful business person iconic class who believes in quality journalism but also believes that the old models aren't working. So tell people what you're doing in terms of content and then tell people about what you're doing in terms of growing the papers resources through investment. So start with the content. What is the LA Times Media Group doing now? Not just with what people think about the newspaper but with the overall brand and content range.