Remarks by Craig Greiwe, Candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles, on Information Suppression by Loyola Marymount University and the Los Angeles Times, delivered on the Loyola Marymount Campus on February 21, 2022.
My name is Craig Greiwe, and I am a candidate for Mayor in Los Angeles.
Today, I am not here to talk about my competitors in this race. Instead, I am here to talk about the corruption and active censorship by institutions of this city to silence new ideas while trying to prop up failing leaders, including the university behind me, Loyola Marymount, and a paper of record, the Los Angeles Times.
For the past four months, the greatest privilege of my life has been to spend time with everyday Angelenos as we work to take back control of this city from career elected officials and career insiders who have created the mess we’re in. Now is the time for change. And we know we cannot trust the people who created this problem to be the people who solve it, whether they’re a career politician or a career insider businessman.
I knew this race would be hard. I knew that we would be battling corrupt powers that are bent on preserving their control. But even I never imagined that some of the institutions we rely on most in this city for fairness, equality, and transparency, would actively work to shut out new ideas that would help people—just because they didn’t come from insiders.
When our city is in crisis, what we need most are ideas and plans that work. My plans to end homelessness are based on success in 14 other cities, not doubling down on failing efforts here in Los Angeles. My plans to restore public safety will put 3,000 police back on patrol, and make our children feel safe again. My plans on corruption will end the reign of terror in this city.
But plans alone are not enough in Los Angeles. We need to get the word out, and we rely on neutral institutions to give my ideas, and the ideas of every candidate, a fair hearing in news coverage and debates. Except that’s not happening.
Loyola Marymount is supposed to be an independent third party hosting a mayoral debate on February 22. Instead, they are an active participant in perpetuating the problems we are in. In a debate with no public qualifying criteria—an ethical problem itself—my campaign is at or above other candidates participating, in every metric. But LMU has chosen to exclude me and my ideas simply because one man, Fernando Guerra, the organizer of the debate, personally does not believe I should be a candidate. He is substituting his own judgment for the people’s, and in the process, jeopardizing a fair election. What’s more, he is not just a professor; he is a career lobbyist who has made hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying those he has chosen to participate in LMU’s mayoral debate. No lobbyist should ever be in charge of a neutral debate. Yet even after hundreds of civic leaders and everyday Angelenos reached out to object to Fernando’s exclusion of my campaign, LMU remains silent. They choose to bury their head in the sand at the expense of democracy.
They are not the only ones.
The Los Angeles Times has, by their reporters’ own admission, had a blanket ban on coverage of my campaign, a massive ethical breach. While covering every other serious candidate in this race, from Mel Wilson to Rick Caruso, they have refused to even mention my name in any capacity. Furthermore, they have actively worked to manipulate headlines and coverage to craft the narrative they want for this election, again substituting their editors’ will for that of the people. The paper recently conducted a poll, and intentionally refused to let voters choose my name as an option for Mayor. They needed and wanted to make sure that I was and am silenced and excluded. Why would they do this? If they truly believed I was not credible or serious, contrary to the opinion of thousands across this city, why not let the poll show that in the results? What are they hiding? Instead, the paper claims they alone get to decide who is and is not credible, without ever publishing any criteria for what that credibility is or means. They are not reporting the news, they are controlling it, and attempting to control the outcome of this election.
This city is in crisis. The solutions our career politicians have handed us aren’t working. What we need are more, and better, ideas. What we need is fair, open, and honest discourse about the future of this city. What we need are independent, vibrant institutions who give a fair hearing to every serious candidate, for the public’s sake. That is not what we are getting.
Today, I am calling on every candidate to stand on the same page. Regardless of our differences, we can agree on the need for an honest exchange of ideas. We can agree that democracy demands we give the people of this city more information, not less. That we foster more discussion, not silence it. The voters of this city will remember the choices of LMU and the LA Times, but also the choices of every candidate. Their silence is a dark mark in this city’s story. It is my hope they will see the light and join the side of open discourse to promote an informed electorate, and a fair election. And that they will call on LMU and the LA Times, and every other institution of this city, to right their errors and ethical lapses as we move forward towards June 7. Los Angeles deserves a fair election, and a fair election requires a fair and open discussion of ideas. For more information, visit craigformayor.com or @CraigForMayorLA on social media outlets.