U.S. agency sues New York Times, accusing it of bias against White male employee

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the New York Times on Tuesday, alleging that the news organization violated federal law by passing over a White male employee for a promotion.

“No one is above the law — including ‘elite’ institutions,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote in a statement. “There is no such thing as ‘reverse discrimination’; all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles.”

She continued: “Federal law is clear: making hiring or promotion decisions motivated in whole or in part by race or sex violates federal law. There is no diversity exception to this rule.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Lower Manhattan, alleges that the Times violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in denying an unnamed employee a promotion. The EEOC said the Times’ emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, which the Trump administration has worked to eliminate, was to blame.

“The New York Times categorically rejects the meritless and politically motivated allegations that the Trump administration’s EEOC is pursuing against us,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha wrote in a statement Sunday after the newspaper first reported on the brewing litigation. “… Throughout this process, the EEOC deviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways, blatantly weaponizing a traditionally independent government body to serve a predetermined narrative.”