Fox Retracts Seth Rich Story

WASHINGTON, DC — Fox News has finally relented to almost universal criticism of a report that suggested DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered by operatives working on behalf of Hillary Clinton, issuing a retraction and yanking the story from its website.

Fox was the first mainstream news outlet to give any credence to a popular conspiracy theory among far-right websites claiming that Rich, a low-level DNC staffer who was killed in what police believe was a botched robbery in D.C. last year, was behind the leaks of DNC emails and was murdered in retaliation. Conspiracy theorists have not produced any evidence of this claim, which would also contradict the widely held conclusion among federal agencies that Russian hackers were behind the leaks. (Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts. Or like us on Facebook. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Fox 5 DC, which first reported the story, based the explosive allegations on one source: Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and President Trump supporter who eventually backed off his claims that Rich had been in contact with Wikileaks just before his death. Fox News also took the story and ran with it.

Despite this, Fox 5 DC merely added a clarification to the top of the story and left it up. But on Tuesday, Fox News issued a retraction and pulled the story. Fox 5 DC's story is still up, but most of the details of the Rich conspiracy have been removed.

"On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich," a statement on the Fox News website said. "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."

Brad Bauman, a spokesman for Rich's family, issued the following statement:

"The family would like to thank Fox News for their retraction on a story that has caused deep pain and anguish to the family and has done harm to Seth Rich's legacy. We are hopeful that in the future that Fox News will work with the family to ensure the highest degree of professionality and scrutiny is followed so that only accurate facts are reported surrounding the case."

Despite the retraction, Fox personality Sean Hannity continued to push the conspiracy theory on Twitter late Tuesday:

Read Kim Dotcom and listen to democrats say over and over NO EVIDENCE of Collusion https://t.co/9ZhgpvtDkO https://t.co/hMouzXfzqE
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 23, 2017

IMPORTANT! Mediamatters is trying to silence me, get me fired, pressure my advertising on radio & TV. Liberal Fascism. I need your help!!
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 23, 2017

Image via Fox 5 DC and Twitter