Seth Rich Image by Facebook

By Ari Feldman March 14, 2018

The parents of the murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich are suing Fox News over their coverage of his death, claiming the network “intentionally exploited” the story as political cannon fodder, the Washington Post reported.

In May 2017, nearly a year after Rich’s unsolved murder in Washington, D.C., Fox News claimed to have evidence that Rich was behind the leak of thousands of DNC emails that he gave to Wikileaks. The story contradicted well-known U.S. intelligence that Russia hacked the DNC’s servers and stole the emails.

The story buffeted a popular conspiracy theory about Rich’s death — that it was ordered by Hillary Clinton for stealing the emails from the DNC.

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Fox News’ story relied on nonexistent source material: an “FBI report” and “federal investigator” that didn’t exist. The other main source was a Fox News contributor and private investigator who said his words were taken out of context, and who eventually sued Fox News over the story. Fox News retracted the story six days after publication.

“No parent should ever have to live through what we have been forced to endure,” Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Rich said in a statement. “The pain and anguish that comes from seeing your murdered son’s life and legacy treated as a mere political football is beyond comprehension.”

Update, March 14, 12:00 p.m. — A representative for Fox News asked that we include this statement: “We can’t comment on this pending litigation.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

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