Attorney General James Uthmeier Files Petition to Inspect New York Times Books and Records

Courtesy of the Office of the Attorney General

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Attorney General James Uthmeier, as a Trustee of the State Board of Administration of Florida and legal counsel for the SBA acting on behalf of the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund, announced that the SBA has filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, to enforce the Fund's shareholder right to inspect books and records of The New York Times Company.

"Florida's more than 1.2 million public retirees are shareholders of The New York Times," said Attorney General James Uthmeier. "The Company itself tells investors that a perception of unreliable or biased journalism is a material risk to its most valuable asset. 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."

"No corporation should be above accountability-especially when the financial futures of Florida's public servants may be affected," said Chief Rita Rodriguez of the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office. "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 shareholder investments are held to the standards the law requires."

"The Florida Retirement System is a basic, core need for every State of Florida employee," said South Florida Police Benevolent Association President Steadman Stahl. "Thanks to the bold leadership of Attorney General Uthmeier, Florida's public servants can rest assured that the FRS will remain sound and fiscally responsible."

The petition is a special proceeding under New York Business Corporation Law § 624, New York common law, and Article 4 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules. It seeks no damages and asserts no claim against any director. It does not ask any court to second-guess an editorial judgment. It asks whether the Board maintains any channel for overseeing compliance with the editorial standards the Company publishes and holds out to investors.

On August 10, 2026, the SBA served a written inspection demand following allegations that the Company had violated its own assurances to investors that its brand and reputation are its most important assets, and that a perception of unreliable or biased journalism is a material risk to those assets. However, following outside pressure, the Company made concessions that its published work did not meet its own standards. A few examples, in the Company's own words, include:

• In October 2023, an editors' note conceded that early coverage of the Al-Ahli hospital explosion "relied too heavily on claims by Hamas."
• A peer-reviewed study counted 72 errors the Company admitted in its own corrections column, in a single coverage area, in eight months. Those errors were identified from outside.
• Just last week, on September 14, correspondent Isabel Kershner published a story about a documentary called NAZA. The original version said 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."

The Company refused the demand in full on August 21, calling it "pretextual" and "coordinated harassment" and invoking the First Amendment. On August 26, the SBA voluntarily narrowed the request to board-level governance records from 2020 forward:

• any charter provision, escalation protocol, or reporting line by which editorial-standards compliance, journalistic accuracy, corrections practice, or defamation exposure reaches the Board or a Board committee;
• Board and committee agendas and calendars sufficient to show whether those subjects have appeared as agenda items;
• versions of the Audit Committee charter and the Company's Editorial Standards, and documents showing who approved them; and
• the reporting line of the Standards Editor.

The narrowed request expressly excluded reporter's notes, unpublished drafts, source identities, editorial deliberations, and attorney work product. On September 1, during a meet-and-confer, Company counsel stated that the Company would produce nothing. Each request is framed so that the absence of responsive documents is itself an answer. If no Board reporting channel exists, the Company can say so.

New York courts have ordered comparable inspections. In 2014, the Appellate Division, First Department, held in the McGraw-Hill case that investigating a board's oversight of internal controls is a proper purpose and that the common-law inspection right is broader than the statute.

The Florida Retirement System is one of the largest public pension systems in the United States. The State Board of Administration invests and administers its assets and owes fiduciary duties to more than 1.2 million members and beneficiaries.

To view the Attorney General's petition, click here.

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