A Manhattan man has sued The New York Times for $50 million, claiming the paper's refusal to label Israel's conduct in Gaza as genocide left him depressed, anxious and unable to sleep. Timothy Murphy, identified in the suit as a Manhattan resident, filed the complaint in April in Manhattan Supreme Court, arguing the Times' wording choices amount to a cover-up of what he calls Israel's genocide against Palestinians.
According to the lawsuit, as reported by the New York Post, Murphy says the Times' coverage of the Gaza war hoodwinks readers by concealing what he describes as genocide, and that the paper's restriction on the word has left him feeling depressed and crazy. He reported crying himself to sleep on numerous occasions and experiencing insomnia on others, per the filing. Murphy is demanding not just damages but a change in how the paper presents its own journalism — he wants the Times to place a warning label on top of any article he considers censored, suggesting language such as “Warning: Propaganda” or “Warning: Misinformation.”
Central to Murphy's complaint is an internal Times memo that, according to the suit, instructed staff to limit use of the terms genocide and ethnic cleansing and to avoid the phrase occupied territory when describing Palestinian land. The lawsuit attributes authorship of that memo to Times international editor Philip Pan and standards editor Susan Wessling, dated to November 2023, and says it was later reported by The Intercept in 2024.
What the Leaked Memo Actually Said
The Intercept's own reporting on the memo lines up with much of what the lawsuit describes. The outlet reported that the guidance told journalists to restrict use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to avoid using the phrase “occupied territory,” according to The Intercept. The same memo reportedly told staff not to use the word Palestine except in very rare cases. The Intercept's report credited the memo to Wessling and Pan along with their deputies.
Per the lawsuit, the memo itself stated that genocide has a specific definition in international law and should generally be used within those legal parameters, with a high bar required before applying the term as an accusation unless grounded in a substantive legal argument. A Times spokesperson told The Intercept at the time that issuing such guidance to ensure accuracy, consistency and nuance in news coverage is standard practice at the paper. A Times spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit, according to the Post's Friday report.
Murphy's Definition Versus the Paper's Caution
Murphy's complaint lays out his own definition of genocide as the systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious or ethnic group, and argues that definition should be applied in reporting on harm to Palestinians. That is the crux of the dispute: Murphy believes the Times' hesitancy to apply the term amounts to deception, while the memo described by The Intercept frames the same hesitancy as adherence to a formal legal standard.
This is not the only legal challenge the Times has faced over its Israel-Hamas coverage. Shareholders of the paper separately sued its parent company, according to The Free Press, in a case filed in New York County Supreme Court that seeks to force the Times' board of directors to turn over internal records, most of them related to its Israel-Hamas war coverage.
New York's Anti-SLAPP Law Looms Over the Case
Any suit targeting a news organization's editorial choices in New York now runs into the state's expanded anti-SLAPP statute. New York significantly broadened that law in November 2020 to cover communications and other lawful conduct touching on matters of public interest, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The revised law should apply to news reporting generally and has already been successfully invoked by media defendants, the group notes.
Under that framework, private-figure plaintiffs suing over matters of public interest must prove actual malice to recover damages, per the Reporters Committee's guidance. New York Civil Rights Law Section 76-a, which governs actions involving public petition and participation, sets out when that actual-malice standard applies, according to the New York State Senate's published text of the statute.
