Discussion: Family Of Murdered DNC Staffer Sues Fox News Over Retracted Story About Son

A Fox News spokesperson told TPM Wednesday that the network “can’t comment on this pending litigation.”
We will however admit to being heartless pricks who will do anything if we think it will fool the base and hurt Democrats

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A day or so earlier the person who made the video of the murder by car in Charlottesville, who was then subjected to crazy conspiracy theories and resulting harassment, filed a law suit against Alex Jones and various people at Infowars. I like this trend.

A story from the Chicago Tribune is a reminder of the worst kind of consequence from the peddling of such theories on the far right fringe - these are acts of terrorism - and I don’t think that to this day the presidunce has ever mentioned the mosque bombing.

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The zeitgeist has people coming out and challenging the false narratives.

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Empty Fox’s corporate wallet. Destroy them.

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Fox News retracted that story in late May 2017 because it was not “subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting,” the network said in a statement at the time.


Said the spokesperson, “We only publish our bullshit after throwing it against a wall and seeing if it sticks. Only the stickiest bullshit is good enough for us. Our bullshit about this murder actually slid off. But hey, it was a slow news day.”

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If only these folks had Peter Thiel kind of money and do to Fox what he did Gawker.

Ah, a boy can dream…

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Worth remembering that this sham story lit up the fever swamp conspiracists on the “far left” as well. I’d be curious how much Russia helped to drive that one forward.

Also I hope this hurts FN. Badly. And Scammity in particular.

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Fox News retracted that story in late May 2017 because it was not “subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting,” the network said in a statement at the time.

I guess their normal scrutiny of spaghetti testing a story thrown up against a wall to see what sticks was insufficient vetting.

ETA: @eldonlazar, you beat me to it.

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I’d like to know why Sean Hannity wasn’t specifically named in the suit as well.

No matter. I want every talking head at FNC sued into oblivion.

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Maybe they need to set up a gofundme…

I’d contribute

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I am so pleased that the family of Seth Rich are suing Fox News for their scandalous and irresponsible fake news story about the murder of their son. I hope the jury awards them billions in punitive damages.

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I am betting Fox will settle. Because otherwise discovery. Every piece of email about this story that went among its managers.

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That ‘discovery’ would be a beautiful thing to see.

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The stench of Roger Ailes’ corpse is all over this.

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…Fox News, investigative reporter…

I believe I’ve identified the underlying oxymoronic problem.

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I had lunch with my brother the Fox News Republican yesterday. He firmly believes the retracted Fox News story and thinks it is proof positive that Hillary had the young man murdered as he thinks she has murdered so many before. I am serious, Fox News is the reason we really ought to reexamine our libel laws.

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And the alternative is the precedential value of a settlement even with the standard issue “no admission of wrong doing” clause and a non-disclosure agreement. It’s always a good news day when the right wing politicians and their alt-right propaganda machines take a hit.

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It is tragic that Seth Rich’s family has to go to this extreme to beat back the cruel lies FOX News made up for political gain, but at the end of the day, Fox smeared the reputation of Seth Rich relentlessly and would stop even after his parents begged them to stop the asinine relentless attacks meant to divert attention away from stories documenting Trump’s collusion with the Russians. In particular, Sean Hannity, Fox News’ lowlife college dropout commentator seemed to show callous indifference to Seth Rich’s family’s pleas and quite the opposite, show pleasure in causing pain and suffering to the poor family trying to grieve privately.
I hope to goodness Seth Rich’s family decisively wins the lawsuit and the jury awards a painful financial judgement against Fox News. It is too bad the lawsuit doesn’t name Sean Hannity as one of the conspirators and the money doesn’t come exclusively out of his purse.

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