{"id":42125,"date":"2019-07-09T14:27:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T21:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=42125"},"modified":"2019-07-09T15:06:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T22:06:43","slug":"the-fake-fox-news-story-about-seth-rich-was-planted-by-russia-and-promoted-by-hannity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=42125","title":{"rendered":"The Fake Fox News Story About Seth Rich Was Planted By Russia and Promoted By Hannity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo News has just published an extensive investigative report revealing that the bogus story about the murder of the Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich, was originally planted by Russian intelligence. (Insert SHOCKED! face here). This was a completely fabricated piece of actual fake news that was prominently pushed by Fox News, and particularly Sean Hannity.<\/p>\n

\"Fox
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The article by Isikoff went into stark detail about the origins of the callous claims that Rich was actually the source of hacked emails the were published by Wikileaks. Those who told and spread these lies had no compassion whatsoever for the family that was grieving the loss of a loved one. Likewise, they didn’t care that they were disseminating falsehoods created by Russian spies intended to disrupt an American presidential election. Isikoff reported that<\/a><\/strong>…<\/p>\n

“The conspiracy claims reached their zenith in May 2017 \u2014 the same week as Mueller\u2019s appointment as special counsel in the Russia probe \u2014 when Fox News\u2019 website posted a sensational story claiming that an FBI forensic report had discovered evidence on Rich\u2019s laptop that he had been in communication with WikiLeaks prior to his death. Sean Hannity, the network\u2019s primetime star, treated the account as major news on his nightly broadcast, calling it ‘explosive’ and proclaiming it ‘might expose the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history.'”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“In fact, the Fox story was a ‘complete fabrication,’ said [U.S. attorney Deborah] Sines, who consulted with the FBI about the Fox News claims. There was ‘no connection between Seth and WikiLeaks. And there was no evidence on his work computer of him downloading and disseminating things from the DNC.'”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In an interview on MSNBC, Isikoff elaborated on what his investigation uncovered (video below):<\/p>\n

“The timing is so interesting here. The week that this breaks on Fox News, in the story they later had to retract and acknowledged didn’t ‘meet their editorial standards,’ Sean Hannity is shouting it from the rooftops. What’s going on that week? It’s the week that [special counsel Robert] Mueller was appointed. It’s the week [FBI Director James] Comey was fired. It’s when the Russia story was blowing up.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Isikoff noted that Hannity’s guest was Trump’s attorney for the Russia affair, Jay Sekulow. He had just been hired by Trump, but Hannity left that fact out of the segment. Together they were pushing the phony Rich story as a means to undercut the Russia narrative.<\/p>\n

Fox News later issued a mushy retraction that admitted no fault<\/a><\/strong>. They said they would conduct an internal investigation to ascertain where they went wrong, but any findings from the alleged investigation remain undisclosed. However, Hannity never conceded any wrongdoing<\/a><\/strong> at all. To the contrary, he insisted that his “reporting”<\/em> was accurate<\/a><\/strong> and would continue:<\/p>\n

“I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com, I retracted nothing. For those accusing me of pushing a conspiracy theory, you are the biggest phony hypocrites in the entire world. This issue, it\u2019s so big now that the entire Russia collusion narrative is hanging by a thread. […] These are questions that I have a moral obligation to ask, and I will do the mainstream media\u2019s job like I have most of my career.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

True to form, Hannity never did retract his lies about Rich. But he did delete all of his tweets about Rich (you can still see them here<\/a><\/strong>). He is exhibiting the same dishonesty, arrogance, and stubbornness as his bestie in the White House, Donald Trump. They both will cling to the most ludicrous assertions, even after they have been proven to be utterly false. The truth plays no part in their determined propaganda crusades. And neither does patriotism, as both Hannity and Trump have now been been shown to be willing confederates (aka “useful idiots”<\/em>) of covert Russian operations.<\/p>\n

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
\nFox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.<\/a>
\nAvailable now at Amazon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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.@Isikoff<\/a>, having reported on the Seth Rich conspiracy theory being Russian propaganda, explains why and how Fox News and Sean Hannity latched on to it: https:\/\/t.co\/elCSmeUjCy<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/ScOq5E3Wci<\/a><\/p>\n

— John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) July 9, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n