Florida Seeks To Scrutinize The New York Times' Editorial Process

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s GOP Attorney General James Uthmeier is leveraging the state retirement fund’s investment in The New York Times to scrutinize the company’s editorial practices.

Uthmeier demanded scores of records Monday in an attempt to show how stories are reviewed at The New York Times and its board’s involvement in news decisions. His 28-page letter contends the publication’s “editorial malpractice” could expose the media giant to costly litigation and ultimately hurt shareholders — including scores of his state’s retirees.

The investigation, the Republican maintains, is “grounded in concrete corporate risk, not generalized dissatisfaction with editorial judgment,” as he pointed to cases such as Fox News paying nearly $800 million to settle defamation claims against Dominion Voting Systems as evidence that editorial decisions can come at a price to investors. He gave the Times two weeks to respond.

“Editorial malpractice does not always kill a media enterprise,” Uthmeier wrote. “But it always sends a bill.”

Danielle Rhoades Ha, senior vice president for communications with The New York Times, refuted the attorney general’s allegations.

"We are aware of the demand letter, which, while positioned as a request under corporate law, is a clear attempt to chill First Amendment-protected journalism,” she said in a statement. “We will respond more fully in due course."

Targeting The New York Times is a fitting move for Uthmeier, who as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handpicked attorney general has gone after companies like Target on similar grounds, arguing that marketing for LGBTQ+-friendly products lost investors like Florida money. Florida’s allegations also align with similar criticisms The New York Times has faced in recent weeks from the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research and the National Jewish Advocacy Center, among others, sparked in part by a column from Nicholas Kristof accusing Israel of using dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. The Times, in response to criticism after the column's publication, said they stood by the piece and that Kristof's reporting "underwent a rigorous vetting process by Opinion’s fact-checking department to ensure that every testimony and anecdote he personally reported was supported by independent sources, as is the case with all sensitive pieces."

In his letter, Uthmeier alleges there are “publicly documented failures” of The New York Times failing to apply its own editorial standards to stories and using the opinion section to “publish reported factual assertions outside the newsroom’s verification controls.”

Uthmeier gave several examples but specifically harped on Kristof’s May opinion column — "The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians" — as he took issue with the Times’ coverage of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times over the piece, which his government labeled as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel.”

Specifically, Uthmeier is asking The New York Times for records showing if and how the company’s board of directors was briefed about the article and its fallout. He is also seeking similar documents surrounding the paper’s response to other stories, such as a June 4 report detailing allegations from multiple women regarding volatile and intimidating behavior by former Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. One of the other demand letters, from attorneys and the National Jewish Advocacy Center, also cites the Platner story, claiming the “company’s refusal to report self-evidently newsworthy information” about the candidate “followed a pattern of the company downplaying or outright ignoring information, such as his Nazi tattoo.”

“The Times tells investors that its brand and reputation are its most important assets, and that if people see its journalism as unreliable or biased, the company can be hurt,” Uthmeier said Monday in a social media video. “So, we want to exercise our rights under New York law to review the company's internal board documents, meeting minutes, reports, and other materials, to see what the directors know.”

With more than 1.2 million members and beneficiaries, the Florida Retirement System is one of the largest public pension systems in the country, and it holds about 160,000 shares of New York Times stock, according to Uthmeier.

The State Board Of Administration's latest SEC filing in May reported that the Florida Retirement System owns 147,831 shares of The New York Times Company valued at $12,377,890, federal documents show.