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UPDATED: Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has released a statement about why he appeared on Ask Dr. Drew: “I was invited, and it’s one of the few shows that allows for a long-form conversation, providing the opportunity to discuss complex issues in depth rather than relying sound bites.” He did not address the way he reacted to comments by Drew Pinsky about Times reporter Jaclyn Cosgrove.
PREVIOUS: Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is once again in hot water with his newsroom after he appeared on Dr. Drew Pinsky’s podcast and didn’t defend the past work of one of his reporters.
During a 90-minute discussion Tuesday that encompassed Mayor Karen Bass, the wildfires and their mutual admiration for RFK Jr’s nomination for Health Secretary, Pinsky brought up on Ask Dr. Drew how the Times’ covered his 2021 nomination to the commission that oversees L.A.’s Homeless Services Authority. Pinsky claimed that Times reporter Jaclyn Cosgrove never contacted him at the time, and called their coverage of him “disgusting.”
Soon-Shiong appeared to laugh off his comments about Cosgrove, who uses they/them pronouns, and said this in response, “I think you’re right. You know, the unfairness of …and that was supposed to be a news report rather than opinion … and that’s what I also think is wrong about media here. You have to be fair. And that’s all you ask, right? Fair and honest. And to call you on some of these things.”
Pinsky’s comments about Cosgrove and the “terrible article” begin at 28:56.
On Wednesday, members of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council sent this letter to Soon-Shiong.
“In 2021 our colleague Jaclyn Cosgrove was tasked with writing articles about the nomination of Dr. Drew Pinsky to the commission that oversees the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Those articles quoted Pinsky extensively, as you can see from the stories.”
“Following their publication, Pinsky and podcast host Adam Carolla repeatedly attacked Cosgrove on Carolla’s show. Carolla called Cosgrove a “fucking coward” and the two launched various other insults at Cosgrove. The attacks led to a barrage of harassment from Pinsky’s followers. As Cosgrove explained in an email to the company at the time: “I’ve been called a bitch, a coward, a liar, a chicken shit, a liar and … I’m probably forgetting some. Cosgrove reported the harassment to several people at the company including Jeff Glasser, Shelby Grad, John Canalis and HR.”
“Yesterday, you went on Pinsky’s show, Ask Dr. Drew, and Pinsky again raised the articles. He said he ‘had been waiting for this for a long time’ and again named Cosgrove. He said falsely that Cosgrove never called him for comment. He called the reporting ‘disgusting’ and said he had called Cosgrove and told them to ‘do your damn job.’”
The unit council’s letter went on to say that “Pinsky’s false comments, and your apparent support for them, invite further harassment of our colleague … We are asking for a public statement making it clear that Pinsky’s comments were false and for the company to offer its support for Cosgrove, who was doing their job as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. The owner of the Los Angeles Times should not support – or keep quiet during – unfair attacks on his own employee.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times also released this to Deadline: “On his show Ask Dr. Drew, Dr. Drew Pinsky asserted that the Los Angeles Times had published a story about his nomination to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in 2021 without calling him or asking him any questions, and suggested that the reporting was not fair. That is not accurate. The Times did interview him for the story, and he was quoted extensively in the published article. We encourage anyone who is concerned about the fairness of the story to read it themself.”
You can find the original Cosgrove article that was titled “Dr. Drew eyed for homeless commission, angering advocates who wonder: Is this a joke” here. The spokesman also forwarded Deadline’s request for comment to Soon-Shiong and we will update this story if and when we hear from him.
In October, the paper made national news — while some of its own staffers quit — after Soon-Shiong informed his editorial board that the Times would be making no endorsement in the presidential race. The Times had endorsed a candidate in each cycle since 2008 and, according to CJR, was planning to endorse Kamala Harris until the owner nixed the practice.
Soon-Shiong referenced that decision during Pinsky’s podcast on Tuesday. “I mean the decisions we made in regard to the non-endorsement on Kamala, nobody’s called me on that but made assumptions and then you make assumptions and then you make opinions based on your assumptions, and then you just keep them going. And then you call that news … We’ve got to stop that.”
