By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Florida’s state-run public pension fund and a conservative think tank sued the New York Times on Wednesday, seeking materials to determine whether the company’s board is letting the newspaper promote biased editorial coverage against Israel.
According to a petition filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, a series of factual errors in Times reporting on various subjects supports a reasonable inference that the board has allowed journalistic standards to be “weaponized within the company to serve the personal agendas of unchecked editors.”
The State Board of Administration of Florida (SBA), which oversees the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund, and the National Center for Public Policy Research said they are not second-guessing the newspaper’s editorial judgment, but want assurances the board is making sure the Times follows its editorial standards and avoids “biased and unreliable” reporting.
Both petitioners are Times shareholders, and said New York state law entitled them to inspect its records but the newspaper refused.
“This lawsuit has no merit and was brought for an improper purpose,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said.
“Although it is positioned as a corporate governance petition to inspect the company’s books and records, it is a transparent attempt to exert agenda-driven pressure against an independent media organization, level false allegations of bias and chill journalism protected by the First Amendment,” he added. “We will defend against the suit vigorously.”
BATTLES OVER ISRAEL COVERAGE, INDEPENDENCE
Many media, including the Times, have faced accusations they have skewed coverage against Israel following the October 2023 outbreak of war in Gaza.
Wednesday’s petition also escalates a growing battle nationwide over journalistic independence, including US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. Those outlets sued Trump, saying the ban was unconstitutional and violated their First Amendment rights.
The Florida pension fund serves more than 1.2 million retirees, and had about $235.7 billion of assets under management as of August 31, according to its website.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier, both Republicans, are SBA trustees.
“The Times says unreliable journalism is a material risk,” Uthmeier said in a post on X. “We asked if the board oversees its standards, and they refused to produce a single page.”
WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS
Wednesday’s petition is based in part on claims by an unnamed former Times newsroom employee who worked there for a decade, and began complaining as early as 2019 about its alleged widespread culture of anti-Israel bias.
The petition said the Times repeatedly brushed off the whistleblower’s complaints, including when a supervisor told her “it’s not your job to be the ombudsman” and a human resources representative suggested she “go find a place whose values align with yours.”
It also said the Times appears to have not followed through on Times publisher and board chair A.G. Sulzberger’s commitment in 2019 to update its “unconscious bias training” to include a direct focus on antisemitism.
“We’re not trying to censor anyone,” Steve Milloy, executive director of the think tank’s Free Enterprise Project, said in an interview. “But if they want to go down as the paper of record, then there must be records backing up what they’re claiming.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bill Berkrot)
Comments