Fox News retracts story linking murder of DNC aide to 2016 presidential campaign
Fox News on Tuesday retracted a story linking the murder of a Democratic National Committee staff member with the email hacks that aided President Donald Trump’s campaign, effectively quashing a conspiracy theory that had taken hold across the right-wing news media.
Seth Rich
It was a rare acknowledgment of error by the network. But it also underscored a schism between the network’s news-gathering operation and one of its biggest stars: the conservative commentator Sean Hannity, who has unapologetically promoted the theory and remained defiant Tuesday.
“These are questions that I have a moral obligation to ask,” Hannity said on his radio show, shortly after Fox News announced its mistake. “All you in the liberal media — I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com. I retracted nothing.”
The story of the murdered aide, Seth Conrad Rich, who was 27 when he was shot in the back near his Washington home in July, has been seized on by Hannity and other right-wing pundits as an alternative narrative to the cascade of damaging revelations about the Trump administration’s ties to Russian officials who meddled in the presidential election.
On Fox News on Tuesday night, Hannity said that he had been in touch with Rich’s brother and that, “out of respect for the family’s wishes — for now — I am not discussing this matter at this time.” But he promised his viewers, “I am not going to stop doing my job.”
He added, “At the proper time, we shall continue, and talk a lot more.”
Citing unnamed sources, Fox News’ website published an article last week suggesting that Rich’s death was in retaliation for his sharing DNC emails with WikiLeaks — a theory that, if true, would undercut the notion of Russian political interference and, in turn, offer cover for Trump.
No evidence to support that theory has emerged, and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department is still investigating the death of Rich. Rich’s family, believing he was murdered during a failed robbery, has called for retractions from news organizations that promoted the story; on Tuesday, Fox News agreed.
“The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting,” the network said in a statement. “The article was found not to meet those standards, and has since been removed.”
The statement did not address Hannity’s coverage of Rich’s death, and Fox News representatives deferred to his comments on air Tuesday night.
The speculation about Rich’s death — and its implications for an embattled president — captivated audiences in the right-wing media sphere, from Hannity’s prime-time show to more obscure but influential websites like The Gateway Pundit, which rose to prominence last year in part by spreading rumors about Hillary Clinton’s health.
The theory also surfaced on Fox News beyond Hannity: Newt Gingrich, a network contributor, discussed the case on “Fox and Friends” on Sunday, and Geraldo Rivera, a correspondent at large, posted on Twitter about it.
On the radio Tuesday, Hannity mocked journalists who questioned his interest in the subject, equating the theory about Rich’s murder to the reports that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian officials during the election.
“For those who accuse me of pushing a conspiracy theory, you are the biggest phony hypocrites in the entire world,” said Hannity, who speaks regularly with Trump.
This was the second high-profile break between Hannity and his employer in two months: in April, the host warned publicly of “the total end” of Fox News if the network fired Bill Shine, a top executive and close friend of Hannity. Shine ultimately resigned, but Hannity stayed put, even as the television news industry speculated about his plans.
Hannity stoked that speculation again Tuesday, promising an announcement about “my future at Fox.” On-air, he made clear that he had no plans to leave. “I serve at the pleasure of the Fox News Channel,” he said. “I am here to do my job every night. I am under contract, as long as they seem to want me.”
Hannity is the remaining member of Fox News’ once-invincible prime-time lineup, following the departures of Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly. The network’s prime-time ratings have fallen, especially as Trump’s troubles have grown.
Some Fox News employees this week said they had been angered by Hannity’s ongoing broadcasts about the Rich theory, calling it an embarrassment to the network’s journalists.
Other employees expressed shock that the network was willing to retract the story at all. Under Roger E. Ailes, its pugnacious former chairman who died last week, Fox News followed a mantra of “never apologize,” weathering all manner of controversies over its coverage. But since Ailes’ exit in a sexual harassment scandal, the network has been more willing to admit error.
It apologized in January after inaccurately describing a suspect as Moroccan after a mass shooting at a Canadian mosque. In March, the network briefly sidelined Andrew Napolitano, its senior legal analyst, after he made an unsupported accusation about Britain’s top spy agency.
Before the retraction, Hannity had promised to feature an account on his program from Kim Dotcom, an internet entrepreneur who is wanted in the United States on racketeering charges. Dotcom has said that he has evidence that Rich was a WikiLeaks source, but he has not offered the evidence publicly. Fox New said he was never booked.
On Tuesday, Aaron Rich, the brother of Seth Rich, sent a letter to Hannity’s executive producer asking that Dotcom not be allowed on air.
“Nobody wants to solve Seth’s murder more than we do,” Aaron Rich wrote. “However, providing a platform to spread potentially false, damaging information will cause us additional pain, suffering and sorrow.”
A spokesman for the Rich family, Brad Bauman, said Tuesday that they were grateful for the formal retraction. He declined to say if Fox News offered an apology.
Emily Steel contributed reporting.
