Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is leading a shareholder lawsuit seeking internal records from The New York Times Company over allegations that the newspaper failed to properly oversee its editorial standards, particularly in its coverage of Israel and Hamas.

The State Board of Administration of Florida, acting on behalf of the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund, and the National Center for Public Policy Research filed the petition Wednesday in New York County Supreme Court. The shareholders are asking a judge to require the Times to produce corporate records concerning how its board oversees journalistic accuracy, corrections and editorial standards.

Uthmeier said the case is about corporate governance rather than asking a court to determine what the Times can publish. Because the newspaper is publicly traded, he argued, shareholders have a right to know whether the company is following the editorial standards and safeguards it presents to investors.

“We counted 72 recent errors where the company admitted in its own correction column in a very single coverage area in just eight months,” Uthmeier said Wednesday, describing the corrections as evidence of what he characterized as a broader problem with the paper’s Israel-related coverage. The attorney general’s office said its investigation is focused on whether the Times’ board has adequate oversight mechanisms for editorial standards.

The petition seeks records dating back to 2020, including board and committee materials concerning editorial standards, journalistic accuracy, corrections practices and potential defamation exposure. The shareholders also want information about the company’s editorial standards, who approved them, and how the standards editor reports to management.

The filing points to several disputed or corrected examples of Times coverage involving Israel and Hamas. Among them are an article about a Gaza civil-defense worker whom Israel identified as a Hamas operative, a photo caption that misstated the weight of bombs supplied to Israel, and an article about a Gaza documentary that included wording the Times later described as an editing error. The shareholders argue such incidents warrant examination of the company's internal oversight systems.

The petition also relies on allegations from a former Times employee who raised concerns about the newspaper’s coverage of Israel and antisemitism on multiple occasions between 2019 and 2026. The former employee is cited as saying the public should have a better understanding of how the Times handles reporting involving Jews and Israel.

The Florida SBA oversees more than $276 billion in assets and holds 161,375 shares of Times stock, according to the Florida Phoenix. The retirement system serves more than 1.2 million members and beneficiaries, giving the state a financial interest in the performance of companies in which it invests.

The Times has rejected the allegations and said it intends to fight the petition. Charlie Stadtlander, the company's executive director for media relations and communications, called the lawsuit an attempt to pressure an independent media organization and said the newspaper would defend itself vigorously.

The case follows months of attempts by the shareholders to obtain the requested records. The Times previously declined the demand, with its attorneys arguing that the request lacked a proper purpose and raised First Amendment concerns. The new petition asks the court to determine whether the shareholders are entitled to inspect the corporate documents under New York law.