The hosts of “Fox and Friends” opened up their show Thursday morning by touting a full page advertisement Fox News purchased in the New York Times, following a recent feud between the two news organizations.
The full page ad featured a photo of the show’s three hosts with the quote “…the most powerful TV show in America” across the top, credited to The New York Times.
The quote references a recent piece by Times TV critic James Poniewozik, who said the show was powerful not only because the President watches it, but also because the hosts treat President Donald Trump as a fourth virtual host by allowing him to interact via Twitter with everything they discuss.
Like clockwork, Trump tweeted about the advertisement 40 minutes later, expressing shock over the Times quote.
Wow, the Failing @nytimes said about @foxandfriends "….the most powerful T.V. show in America."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2017
The advertisement follows a recent feud between the competing news outlets, in which a New York Times spokesperson demanded an apology and retraction after Fox reported — online and on “Fox and Friends” —that a 2015 Times piece fumbled plans for the U.S. to capture an ISIS leader.
The Fox story was based on comments Gen. Tony Thomas, who leads the U.S. special operations command, made at the Apsen Security Forum. Thomas told Fox that the U.S. was close to capturing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi until a lead about the capture was published in a “prominent national newspaper,” which caused the lead to go dead.
The President also tweeted about the topic after the “Fox and Friends” segment.
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
A Times spokesperson reached out to the network asking for an apology and a retraction, calling the segment “malicious and inaccurate” and clarifying that the Times story was based on a statement from the Pentagon, which would have been what made Baghdadi aware of the capture, not the Times article.
The Times also claimed the reporter described the article to the Pentagon before it was published and they had no objections to the piece.
h/t HuffPost.
