The New York Times requests on-air apology for Fox & Friends segment

The New York Times building. — (Image credit: Don Emmert/Getty Images)

The New York Times is accusing Fox & Friends of running a "malicious and inaccurate segment" regarding a story it published in 2015, and it's requesting that the Fox News morning show apologize on-air and in a tweet.

Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the Times, told The Associated Press Sunday that on Saturday, a Fox & Friends host inaccurately claimed that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was able to "sneak away under the cover of darkness" after the Times published an article that tipped him off. The host went on to say the U.S. would "have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had, except someone leaked information to the failing New York Times." The newspaper defended itself by pointing out that more than three weeks before the article appeared in print, the Pentagon issued a press release that al-Baghdadi could have seen, and the Pentagon "raised no objections" about the report, based on intelligence gathered from a raid, before it was published.

The segment was seemingly based on an interview Fox News did with Gen. Tony Thomas, who was head of U.S. Special Operations Command. He said in 2015, they were "close" to al-Baghdadi, following a raid, but the "lead went dead" after it "was leaked in a prominent national newspaper." Caley Cronin, a spokeswoman for Fox, told AP in a statement that Fox & Friends will "provide an updated story to viewers tomorrow morning based on the FoxNews.com report." President Trump, a faithful viewer of Fox & Friends, tweeted on Saturday that the "failing" New York Times "foiled" the government's attempt to kill al-Baghdadi; the Times responded on Sunday with a story saying he was incorrect.

Article continues below

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.