Shareholders of the New York Times are suing the newspaper’s parent company, alleging its board failed to properly oversee editorial standards and allowed biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The State Board of Administration of Florida and the National Center for Public Policy Research filed the lawsuit in New York County Supreme Court on Wednesday. The shareholders are asking a judge to force the newspaper board to turn over internal records that the company has declined to produce for four months, most of which concern its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The lawsuit argues that the board has a responsibility to protect the newspaper’s reputation and economic viability by establishing and monitoring internal journalistic standards.
The New York Times did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
The suit relied heavily on the account of a former New York Times employee, who raised concerns about alleged antisemitism and anti-Israel bias through the newspaper’s internal reporting channels on at least 15 occasions beginning in 2019.
The employee used company resources to report what she considered violations of the paper’s editorial standards. The lawsuit alleged her complaints were not adequately addressed.
At one point, according to the suit, a Human Resources employee responded to her concerns by saying, “If you don’t like our values here, maybe you should go find a place whose values align with yours.”
The employee also alleged that journalists who publicly advocated for Palestinians during the war did not face similar scrutiny. Her supervisor, according to the lawsuit, told her that “it’s not your job to be the ombudsman of the New York Times.”
The New York Times had established standards governing journalists’ conduct during the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to the lawsuit. On Nov. 2, 2023, the newspaper’s standards leadership told newsroom employees not to sign petitions or participate in organized protests related to the conflict.
The lawsuit alleged that the board failed to adequately monitor whether those standards were being enforced.
“The Florida AG and the National Center for Public Policy Research are not asking any court to review a headline or a source,” Mark Goldfeder, an attorney representing the shareholders, told the Washington Examiner. “We are asking who, if anyone, at the top of The New York Times Company checks whether the rules it publishes are followed.”
The lawsuit also points to a May 2026 opinion column by Nicholas Kristof, “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” as an example of what it describes as inadequate editorial oversight. Kristof wrote that he had spoken with 14 Palestinians who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of Israeli security forces. The column also cited reports from United Nations bodies, human rights organizations, and aid groups.
The shareholders allege that the column’s sourcing and verification were subsequently challenged, including by one of the people identified as a source. They argue that the episode raises questions about the New York Times’s fact-checking, source verification, and editorial review procedures.
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The lawsuit further alleged that the newspaper has acknowledged dozens of errors in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. According to the shareholders, the newspaper made 72 errors between October 2023 and June 2024.
The lawsuit seeks access to the company’s internal records so shareholders can investigate whether the board fulfilled its oversight responsibilities. It does not, by itself, establish that the paper’s coverage was biased or that the board violated its fiduciary duties — those allegations remain claims by the plaintiffs.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
