No apology from Fox in its battle with New York Times
NEW YORK — Fox News Channel on Monday clarified, but didn’t apologize for, a weekend segment that The New York Times said falsely accused the newspaper of revealing intelligence information that enabled Islamic State leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi to elude capture by U.S. forces two years ago.
Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said Fox was guilty of “sheer hypocrisy” because the network had also reported about a U.S. raid that netted valuable intelligence soon after it took place.
The dispute between the two news outlets was magnified by White House attention. A “Fox & Friends” report Saturday was headlined, “NYT foils U.S. attempt to take out al-Baghdadi.” President Donald Trump was apparently watching because less than a half hour later, he tweeted the Times “foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, AlBaghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security.”
The issue surfaced following a Friday interview of Gen. Tony Thomas, head of the U.S. special operations command, by Fox correspondent Catherine Herridge. They talked about a May 16, 2015, raid in Syria, where U.S. forces killed a top al-Baghdadi aide and captured his wife. Thomas said the raid garnered a valuable lead that could have led the U.S. to alBaghdadi, but it went cold after it was leaked “in a prominent U.S. newspaper” about a week later. Herridge, writing for Fox’s website, tied it to the Times.
The Times published a detailed story on June 18, 2015, about some of the intelligence gathered in the raid, and that was the story to which Thomas referred.
The Times said that story was described to officials in the Pentagon before it was published, and no objections were raised. No senior American official complained publicly about the story until now, two years later, the newspaper said.
Rhoades Ha said no one from Fox contacted the Times for comment before Herridge’s piece was published. She said the online story was changed to reflect comment from the Times after the paper reached out, but that had no impact on how “Fox & Friends” reported on the issue the next day. The Times called the morning show commentary malicious and demanded an apology.
In a news report on the dispute aired on Fox Monday, “Media Buzz” host Howard Kurtz criticized his company for not reaching out to the Times for comment following Thomas’ remarks.