![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/111_Florida_Legislation_Session_2026_MJO.jpg\" "\\"From")
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From left to right: Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Florida Lt. Gov. Jay Collins attend the first day of the 2026 legislative session at the Florida State Capitol on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Tallahassee, Fla.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE<\/p>\n
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, representing the state\u2019s pension fund, is demanding under threat of lawsuit that New York Times directors divulge six years\u2019 worth of records to prove the company is running smoothly and Florida assets aren\u2019t at risk.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s concerned that the paper is becoming \u201cuntrustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a 28-page letter<\/a>, Uthmeier pointed to four instances since 2020 in which the New York Times either issued corrections or faced major pushback over published articles or opinion pieces \u2014 insisting that potential high-up failures are damaging the Times\u2019 credibility and could harm shareholders.<\/p>\n Uthmeier is a trustee and legal counsel for Florida\u2019s State Board of Administration, which oversees the state\u2019s pension fund and owns about 160,000 shares of New York Times stock<\/a>.<\/p>\n He gave the New York Times\u2019 board of directors two weeks to respond; if they don\u2019t, Uthmeier said he will sue them in the New York Supreme Court.<\/p>\n \u201cA documented public pattern of standards that tighten or slacken based on the politics of the subject of a story creates an enterprise-level risk,\u201d he wrote. \u201cShareholders have tools to ensure the Board prevents The Times from becoming a newspaper the public comes to regard as untrustworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n Uthmeier\u2019s office did not respond to questions on whether Florida would sell its shares.<\/p>\n This is the latest in a host of demands, lawsuits, or subpoenas filed by Uthmeier since Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him chief legal officer last February.<\/p>\n During his election-year bid to stay attorney general, he\u2019s transformed the office from a quiet<\/a>, media-averse role representative of his predecessor, now-U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, into an active, legally intensive position that\u2019s pursued everything from criminal investigations into Raul Castro and OpenAI<\/a> to claims that Catholic bishops<\/a> have flouted their duties.<\/p>\n Uthmeier\u2019s Monday claims center around the Times\u2019 2017 firing of its independent public editor, a position created in 2003 to respond to a plagiarism scandal. Uthmeier \u2014 who says his letter of demand has nothing to do with editorial judgments \u2014 is asking for all board documents, reports, threats of lawsuits and more in his letter, to review \u201cwhat its directors know.\u201d<\/p>\n Two of the four pieces Uthmeier cited in his letter involve the Israel-Hamas War \u2014 including a 2023 article that was later noted to have \u201crelied too heavily on claims by Hamas\u201d and a bombshell column written earlier this year that alleged both Israeli guards and trained dogs were sexually assaulting Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n The New York Times defended the piece as accurate, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would sue the company for defamation. No lawsuit has been filed.<\/p>\n In response to Uthmeier, a New York Times spokesperson accused the attorney general of operating under the guise of business concerns while actually attempting to curtail the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d a spokesperson said via email. \u201cWe will respond more fully in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n