"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. "It’s now 'annihilate ISIS.' Later Sunday, Fox attached the New York Times letter to its original story and issued this statement: "The FoxNews.com story was already updated online and Fox & Friends will also provide an updated story to viewers tomorrow morning based on the FoxNews.com report. For all of their concern about accuracy, the New York Times didn't reach out to anyone at Fox News until Sunday afternoon for a story that ran Friday night." Below is an excerpt from the May 16 Pentagon press release: 
 
 'Last night, at the direction of the Commander in Chief, I ordered U.S. Special Operations Forces to conduct an operation in al-Amr in eastern Syria to capture an ISIL senior leader known as Abu Sayyaf and his wife Umm Sayyaf. "The raid against Abu Sayyaf occurred on May 16, 2015 and was announced that day in an official statement by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. There's also great need to recognize things that will absolutely undercut our ability to do our job.” 
 
 Thomas appeared to be referring to a New York Times report in June 2015 that detailed how American intelligence agencies had “extracted valuable information.” 
 
 ”New insights yielded by the seized trove – four to seven terabytes of data, according to one official – include how the organization’s shadowy leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, operates and tries to avoid being tracked by coalition forces," the Times reported. ... we have killed, in a conservative estimate, 60,000 to 70,000 of his followers, his army.” - Gen. Tony Thomas, Special Operations commander 
 
 “That was a very good lead. Down through a network where we have killed, in a conservative estimate, 60,000 to 70,000 of his followers, his army.” 
 
 In a wide-ranging interview moderated by Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Thomas, who leads the Special Operations Command, said his team was “particularly close” to Baghdadi after the 2015 raid that killed ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf. 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." UPDATE July 24, 2017: 
 
 “Fox & Friends” addressed the Times’ concerns in a segment Monday morning but did not apologize, saying, “The Times described its 2015 reporting to the Pentagon before publication and they had no objections, and no senior American officials have ever complained publicly – until now.” The show then directed viewers to read the full statement online. The host railed against The New York Times for covering a raid stating that the U.S. government 'would have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had except someone leaked' to The New York Times when Fox News had covered the same raid three weeks earlier in a segment in which their correspondent said, 'The newly recovered intelligence may bring U.S. closer to Baghdadi's kill or capture,'" a Times spokesperson said.
– There's a media storm brewing between President Trump's favorite news outlet and one of his most hated, but it concerns a story that unfolded long before he took office. On Sunday, New York Times VP of Communications Danielle Rhoades Ha demanded an on-air apology from Fox and Friends and asked the Fox News morning show to retract its claim that a 2015 Times story enabled Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to elude capture by the US government, ABC News reports. Fox and Friends' segment on Saturday referred to a story on FoxNews.com the day before, in which US Special Operations Commander Tony Thomas claimed his team was close to al-Baghdadi but that their lead on him disappeared after it "was leaked in a prominent national newspaper" in 2015. The controversy took on extra weight when Trump, a devoted Fox and Friends viewer, tweeted on Saturday, "The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist,Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security." Politico reports that a Fox News executive contacted the site to condemn the Times for its request, and for the fact that it did not make said request until Sunday—when the original FoxNews.com story was published two days prior—and alerted other media outlets to the request at the same time. "If we notified the press every time the New York Times had to update an online story or correct something, your inbox would crash," the executive said. Rhoades Ha says the newspaper has yet to hear back from Fox about its request. She also says the Times has sought a clarification from the White House regarding Trump's tweet.