Fox News on Tuesday issued a public retraction of a controversial article it published last week on the investigation of DNC staffer Seth Rich’s murder. “On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich,” Fox’s note read. “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.” The original article had claimed that “sources in FBI” suggested they’d seen Rich’s computer containing evidence of him corresponding with WikiLeaks prior to his murder. However, it turns out, the FBI never had Rich’s computer. “Retracted. Wow,” a former Fox executive remarked to The Daily Beast. “Roger [Ailes] would brag at meetings how he was proud Fox never had to print a retraction.” The Seth Rich story made its way to Fox’s air with primetime star Sean Hannity repeatedly covering the unfounded theory that DNC apparatchiks murdered Rich for possible ties to WikiLeaks. Despite the Rich family’s outrage—and multiple Fox reporters telling The Daily Beast that such coverage “embarrasses” the network—Hannity has persisted.
