breaching civil-rights law <\/a>by discriminating against the unnamed male candidate based on his race or sex, according to the agency\u2019s complaint filed in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\nThe Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused the New York Times of passing over a white man for a top editorial role in favor of a less-qualified multiracial candidate to meet diversity goals. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Nikita Stewart \u2014 the Times\u2019 then-real-estate editor who has since been promoted to metro editor \u2014 \u201cdeviated from normal hiring protocol\u201d in January 2025 to hire someone without experience editing real-estate coverage to work as her deputy, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n
The white man who was bypassed for the gig had \u201cconsiderable experience with real estate news,\u201d which had been a supposed requirement included on the public job listing for the position, the EEOC claimed in the reverse-discrimination lawsuit.<\/p>\n
The Times\u2019 hiring decision came amid a broader push at the paper to add more non-white managers in leadership positions.<\/p>\n
The reverse-discrimination lawsuit reflects EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas\u2019 new approach to employment cases, as the agency aligns itself with President Trump\u2019s policies. REUTERS<\/p>\n
The paper in 2021 developed a \u201cCall To Action,\u201d which stated that \u201cpeople of color\u2014and particularly women of color\u2014remain notablyunderrepresented in its leadership,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday as a \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d case brought by a Trump administration, which that has frequently clashed with the outlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world,\u2019\u2019 Ha said in a statement. \u201cWe will defend ourselves vigorously.<\/p>\n
President Trump is suing the Times\u00a0in a $15 billion defamation lawsuit, accusing it of trying to sabotage his 2024 election campaign and disparage his reputation as a successful businessman. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither race nor gender played a role in this decision \u2013 we hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor,\u201d Ha said of the deputy editor, who has not been identified, either.<\/p>\n
But the suit urged a federal judge to order the Times to enact policies that \u201cprovide equal employment opportunities for individuals regardless of race or sex,\u201d and to award the unnamed allegedly stiffed editor punitive damages.<\/p>\n
The case comes amid a series of attacks by the Trump administration on so-called \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion\u201d initiatives at businesses.<\/p>\n
Trump has separately filed<\/a> a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the Times and publisher Penguin Random House for publishing the book \u201cLucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father\u2019s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success\u201d by Times journalists Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woke New York Times passed over a white male worker with the right chops for an editor\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,17446,2850,1208,9,11,10,980,47162,58],"class_list":["post-221315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-business","tag-dei","tag-lawsuits","tag-media","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-times","tag-racial-discrimination","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}