Florida Pension Fund Sues New York Times Over Alleged Anti-Israel Bias

The Florida State Board of Administration, managing the state's public pension fund, has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times Company in New York's Supreme Court. The suit, also joined by the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, seeks internal documents related to the newspaper's journalistic standards and oversight. The plaintiffs allege that the Times has published "materially false or baseless claims" in its coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, and that corrections have not been issued promptly.

The lawsuit claims that the newspaper's journalistic standards have been manipulated to serve personal agendas of editors. A former employee of the Times' video department, who left in March after nearly a decade, is a key figure in the suit. She reportedly raised concerns about antisemitism and anti-Israel bias at least 15 times since 2019 with management, standards, and human resources departments. She allegedly prepared a 26-slide presentation documenting instances of perceived rule misapplication, including issues with video selection, antisemitism training, and freelancer vetting.

The suit specifically references the Times' reporting on the October 2023 explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, which plaintiffs claim initially relied on claims from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. It also cites the rehiring of an freelance Gaza photographer, Suliman Hajji, whose past social media posts allegedly expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler, despite the newspaper being aware of the content.

Further examples include a May 2026 op-ed by Nicholas Kristof concerning alleged sexual abuse of Palestinians, which the plaintiffs argue raised questions about source verification and fact-checking processes. The New York Times has previously stated that the op-ed underwent thorough fact-checking. The shareholders also point to the newspaper's acknowledgment of 72 errors in its war coverage between October 2023 and June 2024.

Mark Goldfeder, the attorney for the shareholders, stated the lawsuit aims to determine if the Times' stated rules are actually enforced by its leadership, not to dictate journalistic content. However, a spokesperson for The New York Times, Charlie Stadtlander, dismissed the lawsuit as "baseless and filed for an improper purpose," calling it an attempt to exert ideological pressure on an independent news organization and create a chilling effect on constitutionally protected journalism. The company intends to "vigorously defend itself" in court.