Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, acting in his role as legal counsel for the state pension system, has filed a petition in New York seeking access to corporate records from The New York Times Company.
The filing was made on behalf of the Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), which oversees the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund, and asks a New York state court to require the company to provide records concerning its oversight of editorial standards. Florida’s pension system is a shareholder in The New York Times Company.
According to the petition, Florida officials are seeking information to determine whether the company’s board is adequately supervising compliance with its own published journalistic standards. The state has said the request is related to concerns about corporate governance and the potential effect of perceived unreliable or biased journalism on shareholder value.
The dispute also involves allegations from a former New York Times newsroom employee who worked for the newspaper for approximately a decade. The petition says the former employee raised concerns beginning in 2019 about what she described as an anti-Israel bias inside the newsroom. The filing alleges that some of her complaints were dismissed by supervisors and that the newspaper did not fully follow through on a 2019 commitment concerning unconscious-bias training and antisemitism. These are allegations contained in the petition and have not been established by a court.
Florida’s State Board of Administration initially made a records demand in August. After The New York Times declined to provide the requested material, the state narrowed its request to records involving the company’s board, including agendas and calendars, different versions of its editorial standards and documents showing who approved those standards. Officials said the request does not seek reporters’ notes, unpublished drafts, confidential sources or editorial deliberations.
The Florida Retirement System serves more than 1.2 million public retirees, while the pension system reported approximately $235.7 billion in assets under management as of Aug. 31, 2026. Florida officials have argued that their responsibilities as shareholders give them a basis to examine whether corporate governance is protecting the value of those investments.
The New York Times has rejected the petition. A company spokesperson said the lawsuit has no merit and characterized it as an effort to pressure an independent news organization. The company has said it intends to defend itself in court and has raised First Amendment concerns about the broader dispute.
The legal action comes amid a broader national debate over media coverage of Israel and the Gaza war, as well as questions about the boundaries between shareholder oversight, editorial independence and freedom of the press. The case is now before a New York state court, where the dispute over access to the requested records will continue.
Credit: The Washington Times
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