Tag: Seth Rich

Fox News finally pays a price for its false reports on the Seth Rich conspiracy theories

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While Fox News attempts to stay in the niche swirling the toilet bowl drain of ultra-right wing nationalism, it is important to remember that Fox News created the fake news space and showed the world how profitable hate and fearmongering could really be. Back in 2016, as the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaigns worked their ways around the country, 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was tragically killed in what Washington, D.C. police called a robbery gone wrong.

Fox News, with an assist from Sean Hannity and whomever it is he gets his bogus information from, promoted a conspiracy theory-laden web of lies about Seth’s death, connecting it to Hillary Clinton and the now quaint “her emails” scandal. Joel and Mary Rich sued Fox News in 2018 saying that the right-wing lie factory “intentionally exploited” their son’s death to push a political agenda. On Tuesday, the case was dismissed by both parties as Fox News has reached a settlement with the Riches.

The original story was published by Malia Zimmerman and Fox News promoted it relentlessly for a week before retracting it. No further followup into what had happened that allowed the news outlet to publish and push the baseless, arguably libelous insinuations that Hillary Clinton and her team had assassinated a young man over emails leaked to the press. Continue reading.

Lawsuit alleges White House link in discredited Seth Rich conspiracy theory

The following article by David Weigel and Paul Farhi was posted on the Washington Post website August 1, 2017:

Seth Rich, a DNC data specialist, was fatally shot July 10, 2016, in a botched robbery attempt, D.C. police said. (Credit:  Democratic National Committee)

A private detective who investigated the slaying of a Democratic National Committee staffer alleged in a lawsuit Tuesday that Fox News Channel worked with White House officials to push a discredited theory about the case to undermine allegations of Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The investigator, Rod Wheeler, further claims in the suit that President Trump was aware of the bogus story and urged Fox to publish it on its website.

Wheeler’s defamation lawsuit — which names Fox News, a Fox reporter and a wealthy businessman as defendants — is an outgrowth of the slaying last summer of Seth Rich, a young data specialist at the DNC.

Rich was killed in his D.C. neighborhood in July 2016 in what police said was a botched robbery attempt. But the timing set off a conspiracy theory among Trump supporters and those on the far right: that Rich’s death was somehow arranged by Democratic officials as payback for his leak of thousands of DNC emails and electronic files to WikiLeaks, which published them. Continue reading “Lawsuit alleges White House link in discredited Seth Rich conspiracy theory”

Explosive lawsuit alleges Trump reviewed and approved bogus Fox News story on Seth Rich

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgress website August 1, 2017:

White House officials previously denied any knowledge.

CREDIT: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

A defamation lawsuit filed by longtime Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler against the network alleges that President Trump was directly involved in concocting a fake story intended to undercut the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian hackers waged cyberattacks against Democratic targets to help him get elected.

The Fox News story — headlined “DC MURDER MYSTERY: Slain DNC staffer was WikiLeaks’ source, say investigators” — was heavily promoted on Sean Hannity’s show and Fox & Friends, but was retracted by Fox News about a week after it was published. It falsely claimed there was evidence linking slain former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich with WikiLeaks, which published emails hacked from the DNC.

The explosive lawsuit was first reported by NPR Continue reading “Explosive lawsuit alleges Trump reviewed and approved bogus Fox News story on Seth Rich”