Florida pension fund sues NY Times over Israel coverage bias claims

Florida’s state-run public pension fund has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, requesting internal company materials to evaluate whether the newspaper is promoting biased editorial coverage of Israel.

The lawsuit follows a shareholder petition led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, which was jointly submitted by the State Board of Administration and the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Uthmeier argued that the lack of board-level oversight has allowed journalistic standards to be used in ways that threaten the company’s economic value and reputation, citing Florida’s pension fund holding over 161,000 shares for more than 1.2 million retirees.

The petition comes after Uthmeier sent a separate letter to The New York Times demanding access to internal records, citing concerns about how editorial standards might affect shareholder value.

The letter referenced two articles involving the Israel-Hamas war, one of which was retracted or faced significant pushback due to its reliance on Hamas claims, leading to an editor’s note acknowledging the coverage left readers with an incorrect impression.

A New York Times spokesperson criticized the petition, calling it an attempt to exert agenda-driven pressure on an independent media organization and to chill protected journalism under the First Amendment.