Longtime staffer with 11 years at the paper passed over for deputy real estate editor because he wasn’t the right demographic.
U.S. Sues The New York Times, Claiming Discrimination Against a White Man
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against The New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that the paper had engaged in “unlawful employment practices” and had discriminated against a white male employee who did not get a sought-after promotion.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, says The Times’s “stated race and sex-based representation goals influenced the decision not to advance” the man’s candidacy for a deputy real estate editor role in 2025.
“The New York Times categorically rejects the politically motivated allegations brought by the Trump administration’s E.E.O.C.,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for The Times. “Our employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world. We will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit followed a rapid escalation of an investigation that began last year when an employee filed a complaint with the E.E.O.C. in New York. The lawsuit indicates that the employee, who is not named, had worked at the paper as an editor since 2014 and applied for the deputy editor job in 2025.
The complaint quotes from Times diversity and inclusion reports in recent years, including a 2021 “Call to Action” that set a goal of increasing the number of Black and Latino employees.
The reports “detailed N.Y.T.’s express efforts to make employment decisions on the basis of race and sex to achieve its desired demographic goals,” the complaint says. “A decrease in the percentage of White male employees (whether new hires, existing employees or those in leadership, as appropriate) was a necessary consequence for the N.Y.T. to achieve these results.”