The New York Times on Sunday took the unusual step of requesting an apology from a competitor, asking “Fox & Friends” to retract a report that the Times was to blame for the 2015 escape of an ISIS leader.
“I am writing on behalf of The New York Times to request an on-air apology and tweet from Fox & Friends in regards to a malicious and inaccurate segment ‘NY Times leak allowed ISIS leader to slip away,’” wrote Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for the Times.
The “Fox & Friends” report, which aired Saturday, apparently spurred a tweet by President Donald Trump: “The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, al-Baghdadi,” the president wrote later Saturday. “Their sick agenda over National Security.”
In her request, Rhoades Ha added: “Neither the staff at Fox & Friends, nor the writers of a related story on Foxnews.com, appeared to make any attempt to confirm relevant facts, nor did they reach out to The New York Times for comment.”
A U.S. raid in May 2015 led to the death of Abu Sayyaf — a close associate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — as well as the capture of his wife, Umm Sayyaf, and a trove of documents and laptops.
The raid in eastern Syria was disclosed the next day by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “This is very useful, very important intelligence that we were able to collect,” a Defense official told POLITICO at the time.
Additional details were reported in a New York Times article in June 2015.
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On Saturday, the Times sought clarification from the White House after Trump’s tweet:
“We have asked the White House to clarify the tweet. If the President is referring to this 2015 story, the Pentagon raised no objections with the Times before publishing the story in 2015 and no senior American official ever complained publicly about it until now, as noted in Peter Baker’s story this morning.”
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The New York Times requests apology from Fox on ISIS story https://t.co/MqOKLMJaNT pic.twitter.com/uCSOv9M1c3
— POLITICO (@politico) July 23, 2017
Trump accuses New York Times of "foiling" an attempt to kill leader of ISIS in bizarre tweet https://t.co/Onn6emqdM7 pic.twitter.com/l4m2KG9woB
— The Hill (@thehill) July 23, 2017
The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist,Al-Baghdadi.Their sick agenda over National Security
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2017
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