TALLAHASSEE — The Navarro Report | Miami Desk
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has demanded that The New York Times Company turn over six years’ worth of internal board records, citing the state pension fund’s stake in the newspaper’s parent company and threatening a lawsuit if the Times does not comply within two weeks.
In a 28-page letter sent Monday, Uthmeier is acting as trustee and legal counsel for Florida’s State Board of Administration, which manages the state’s public pension funds. According to Uthmeier, Florida’s retirement system holds between roughly 148,000 and 160,000 shares of New York Times stock, an investment he valued at more than $12 million.
“After 10/7/23, the @nytimes issued dozens of corrections for incorrect and biased pro-Hamas coverage,” Uthmeier wrote in a post on his X account announcing the demand. “As a trustee over FL’s retirement fund — a NYT stockholder — we are demanding their corporate board open the books. The First Amendment protects speech — not ignoring shareholders!”
The letter centers on the newspaper’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, specifically citing a tally of 72 corrections the Times issued for its reporting on the conflict between October 2023 and June 2024. “According to reports, between October 7th 2023 and June 2024, the Times admitted 72 errors in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war that had to be corrected and many if not most of those errors favored Hamas,” Uthmeier said in a video statement posted to social media.
Uthmeier also pointed to a May opinion column by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that alleged widespread sexual violence by Israeli prison guards against Palestinian detainees — a piece that drew a defamation threat from Israeli officials who disputed its accuracy. “Since the New York Times got rid of its independent public editor, it has several times now admitted, only after outside pressure, that published articles did not meet its standards,” Uthmeier said.
The attorney general is invoking New York corporate law, under which the Times is incorporated, to argue that Florida has standing as a shareholder to inspect the company’s internal materials. “We want to exercise our rights under New York law to review the companies internal board documents, meeting minutes, reports and other materials to see what the directors know,” Uthmeier said, framing the editorial controversies as a potential risk to shareholder value that the company’s board has a duty to address.
The Times pushed back sharply. “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,” Danielle Rhoades Ha, the paper’s senior vice president for communications, said in a statement. “We will respond more fully in due course.”
Uthmeier has given the Times until August 24 — fourteen days from the date of the letter — to permit inspection of the requested records or commit to a production schedule. If the company does not comply, Uthmeier has said Florida intends to file a special proceeding in New York Supreme Court to compel disclosure.
The demand is the latest in a series of aggressive legal actions Uthmeier has pursued since being appointed to the role by Governor Ron DeSantis, who tapped his former chief of staff for the post after DeSantis elevated then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to the U.S. Senate, filling the seat vacated when President Trump named Marco Rubio Secretary of State. Uthmeier is now running for the office in his own right, with Florida’s primary set for August 18.
A Miami Herald analysis of Uthmeier’s tenure noted that where Moody was “quiet, media adverse” in the role, Uthmeier has “transformed the office … into an active, legally intensive position” that has pursued matters ranging from criminal investigations into Raul Castro and OpenAI to claims that Catholic bishops have flouted their legal duties. His office did not respond when the Herald asked whether the state planned to sell its Times shares.
The dispute lands amid a broader national pattern of state officials using financial and regulatory leverage against news organizations over their editorial coverage, a trend press-freedom advocates warn could chill investigative and opinion journalism regardless of whether any individual demand ultimately succeeds in court. Whether Florida’s shareholder-rights argument holds up under New York corporate law — or is read by a judge as a pretext for a First Amendment dispute framed instead in financial terms — will likely become clear only after the Times’ August 24 deadline passes.
This article was produced using a Human-Directed AI Journalism model: reporting, sourcing, and editorial judgment directed by a human journalist, with AI assistance in research and drafting. All facts have been verified against primary and original news sources.