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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsslate - "Why Sean Hannity Won't Let Go of the Seth Rich Conspiracy"
With Trump flailing and viewers fleeing, its the alternate-reality distraction he desperately needs.
By Will Oremus
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/05/why_sean_hannity_can_t_let_go_of_the_seth_rich_conspiracy.html
For the past week, Fox News has been heavily promoting a conspiracy theory linking the unsolved 2016 murder of a young Democratic National Committee staffer to WikiLeaks publication of stolen DNC emails. The implication, first floated by WikiLeaks Julian Assange last year: that the 27-year-old Rich may have been killed in retribution for leaking those emails, and that authorities were colluding to keep it quiet.
The story resurfaced thanks to a May 16 report by local affiliate Fox 5 DC, in which a private investigator claimed to have tangible evidence that Rich had in fact been communicating with WikiLeaks. Fox News made it the top story on its website that same day. Within hours, that report had been debunked. Yet the story had made its way to FoxNews.com, and the networks star primetime opinion host, Sean Hannity, went on to make the Seth Rich murder mystery one of his top segments night after night. Hannity repeatedly suggested that the mainstream media outlets who refused to cover the story were in on the cover-up. Meanwhile, Richs own family pleaded with him to find the decency and kindness to stop flogging the conspiracy theory.
On Tuesday, Fox News retracted its week-old story at last, deleting it from its website. (You can read an archived version of the piece here.) The network offered the following statement:
On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.
We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.
That was Fox News news departmentthe relatively sane wing of its operationtrying to salvage a shard of credibility after multiple reports Monday that its own staff were embarrassed and disgusted by Hannitys crusade. (At least one other conservative outlet, the Daily Caller, also appeared to have taken down its original Rich story on Tuesday.)
snip - more to read at the above link
progressoid
(49,824 posts)Or Limbaugh.
Or Tucker.
Or Levin.
Or ...
It's such a Sophie's Choice.
Initech
(99,909 posts)But I think if I had to pick one above all of them as the most despicable, it would be Alex Jones. Alex Jones - the guy who said that the murder of 22 children didn't happen and inspired terror attacks against the families of the victims. The guy who said yesterday's terror attack was the result of "liberal trendies". The guy who called Obama and Hillary - and I'm quoting directly - "smelly demons from hell". He's the worst of the worst, and I can't believe this piece of shit has White House credentials.