NYT Sued by Feds for Alleged Discrimination Against White Man

A federal civil rights agency filed a discrimination lawsuit Tuesday against the New York Times, claiming that the new organization passed over a white male employee for a promotion in favor of a lesser qualified woman to meet its diversity goals, the AP reports. The New York Times called the lawsuit politically motivated and said it would defend itself "vigorously." The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of a New York Times editor who lodged a complaint after he didn't get the role of deputy real estate editor in 2025, alleging gender and racial discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin, or religion.

The EEOC claimed the news organization's publicly stated goals of increasing the number of women and people of color in its leadership ranks influenced the decision to exclude the white male applicant for a final round of interviews, while advancing three women and a Black man. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, a Republican, has been a staunch champion of the Trump administration's campaign against corporate diversity policies that she argues veer into discrimination against white men and others. In December, Lucas posted a social media call urging white men to come forward with complaints if they believe they have faced discrimination because of their employer's diversity policies.

New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said the EEOC "deviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways. The allegation centers on a single personnel decision for one of over 100 deputy positions across the newsroom, yet the EEOC's filing makes sweeping claims that ignore the facts to fit a predetermined narrative." "Neither race nor gender played a role in this decision—we hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor," Rhoades Ha added. In the lawsuit filed in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York, the EEOC complaint said the complainant, who was not identified, has worked as an editor for the New York Times since 2014, mostly as a senior staff editor on the international desk with previous experience working on real estate stories. (The EEOC also alleges Nike discriminates against white workers.)