Florida AG Petitions Court Over New York Times’ Alleged Anti-Israel Reporting

Florida’s Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier is petitioning the state Supreme Court on behalf of a state pension fund to get the New York Times to open its books for closer inspection.

Uthmeier, acting as a trustee and legal counsel for the State Board of Administration, filed a petition on behalf of the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund seeking to enforce holders’ rights, according to a Wednesday news release.

“Florida’s more than 1.2 million public retirees are holders of The New York Times,” he said in a statement.

“The company itself tells investors that a perception of unreliable or biased journalism is a material risk to its most valuable asset,” Uthmeier continued. “We asked a straightforward question: Does the Board oversee compliance with the Company’s own published standards? The Company refused to produce a single page.”

In August, SBA served a written inspection demand after allegations surfaced that The New York Times Company violated its own promise to investors that its “brand and reputation” are “important assets” and that a perception of journalistic bias would put those assets at risk.

When pushed to defend this pledge, however, the company admitted to falling short of these editorial standards and even provided examples in its correction column.

They included a 2023 story that “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas,” and 72 errors that were committed over an eight-month period, showing a pro-Hamas tilt.

Additionally, the outlet was accused of showing direct bias against Israel in an article from last week, where the original version stated that Israelis “still largely view themselves as the victims of Oct. 7.”

“After outside criticism, the company removed the line and added an editors’ note calling it an ‘editing error’ that ‘inadvertently suggested that Israelis’ experience as terror victims was a matter of perception,’” Uthmeier’s office noted.

Uthmeier also d footage from a news conference on X, in which he outlined the reasoning behind his complaint.

“We’re here to announce a holder petition against the New York Times,” he said. “It’s not a lawsuit or challenge to any certain article or editorial discretion … But when you are a publicly traded company … you have legal responsibilities and duties to your holders. And we saw some very dangerous trends that appear to call into credibility, the sound business sense of what that company’s doing.”

Uthmeier added, “There was a column that went out that reported Israeli state dogs were trained to rape prisoners. Again, had to be retracted. It was trash.”

AG James Uthmeier Files Petition to Inspect New York Times Books and Records on Behalf of Florida’s Retirees https://t.co/gksQdG3T0J

— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) September 23, 2026

Chief Rita Rodriguez, of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, said no company should “be above accountability — especially when the financial futures of Florida’s public servants may be affected.”

“We appreciate Attorney General Uthmeier and his office for taking action to protect Florida’s interests, defend our public servants, and ensure that companies entrusted with holder investments are held to the standards the law requires,” she declared.

The New York Times covered the story Wednesday and included a statement from its spokesman Charlie Stadtlander.

“This lawsuit has no merit and was brought for an improper purpose,” he 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.”

In the petition, Uthmeier admonished The New York Times for not upholding its reputation as the “paper of record,” adding that the political bias of its staff has clouded the company’s mission.

“The company’s repeated publication of materially false or baseless factual assertions, many later admitted internally or disproven externally, supports a reasonable inference that the board has not only failed in its obligation to monitor the company’s internal controls, but it has allowed such flagrantly selective application of the internal controls to support the conclusion that in the absence of any board-level oversight, journalistic standards have been weaponized within the company to serve the personal agendas of unchecked editors,” the filing concluded.

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