# New York Times American daily newspaper founded in 1851, controlled by the Sulzberger family through a dual-class share structure since 1896. The *Times* is the closest thing the United States has to a "paper of record": its decisions about what to cover, what to call things, and how to frame political events propagate through the rest of the media system with disproportionate weight. For the knowledge base, the *Times* appears in several roles: as the **publisher of the [[Pentagon Papers]]** in June 1971 (the case that established the modern doctrine on prior restraint), as the **publisher of the Trump tax returns investigation** (2020) and the long-running coverage of Trump-family finances, as a frequent target of "enemy of the people" rhetoric from the Trump movement, and as an editorial subject in its own right — debates about the paper's framing of trans issues, of "both-sides" political coverage, and of its 2024-cycle election coverage are part of the current right-wing-vs-mainstream-media conflict. The Sulzberger family's continued control through the Class B share structure makes the *Times* one of the few major American newspapers that has not been taken over by a billionaire owner (compare [[Washington Post]] / Bezos, the *LA Times* / Soon-Shiong). That structural fact is load-bearing for the paper's editorial independence in ways that become visible when other oligarch-owned papers spike endorsements or shift framing. ## The 2026 Grand-Jury Subpoenas On **July 10, 2026**, U.S. Attorney [[Jay Clayton]]'s SDNY office issued **federal grand-jury subpoenas** to four *Times* reporters over their sources for reporting on [[United States Secret Service]] security concerns with the Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet. The same day, [[FBI]] Director [[Kash Patel]] personally ran an eight-hour leak hunt from the White House targeting the story's source. The *Times*' general counsel David McCraw called the subpoenas an action that would "shock the conscience of anyone who cares about press freedom." The episode — documented fully at [[NYT Air Force One Subpoenas]] — marks the most aggressive federal use of grand-jury power against a major American newspaper since the [[Pentagon Papers]] era, and connects the *Times*' current role as a target of the [[Second Trump Administration]] to the paper's historical role as a [[First Amendment]] test case. ## See Also - [[Pentagon Papers]] — landmark NYT publication and [[First Amendment]] case - [[Washington Post]] — sibling legacy paper, also a Pentagon Papers publisher, now Bezos-owned - [[NYT Air Force One Subpoenas]] — July 2026 grand-jury subpoenas to four reporters - [[Jay Clayton]] — U.S. Attorney who issued the subpoenas - [[Media Capture]]