Behind Fox News' Baseless Seth Rich Story: The Untold Tale

Lawsuit alleges Fox News and Trump supporter created fake news story:

The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the murder of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The explosive claim is part of the lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR.

Wheeler alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government. His suit charges that a Fox News reporter created quotations out of thin air and attributed them to him to propel her story.

Faux News strikes again. Recall that Fox News issued a retraction about that story:

On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. 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.

However, that didn't stop Sean Hannity from pushing the phony conspiracy theory, despite pleas from the family:

"All you in the liberal media, I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com, I retracted nothing," Hannity said on his radio show Tuesday afternoon.

"For those accusing me of pushing a conspiracy theory, you are the biggest phony hypocrites in the world," he said.
...
Hannity, who has painted Rich as a heroic victim targeted for retribution by the DNC, said on Tuesday, "I feel so badly for this family and what they have been through and what they are going through."

But Rich's family has repeatedly asked Hannity to stop peddling the DNC conspiracy theory.

"Think about how you would feel losing a son or brother," Seth's brother, Aaron, wrote in a letter to the executive producer of Hannity's Fox News show. "And while dealing with this, you had baseless accusations of your lost family member being part of a vast conspiracy."

He promised to not talk about it anymore after the family's pleas, but did so anyway:

Conservative television and radio show host Sean Hannity discussed the murdered Democratic National Committee staffer, Seth Rich, on his show Thursday. This came after stating on May 23 that he would avoid the topic, out of respect for the family.
...
“My guess is there are a lot of angry, disgruntled, whistleblowing truth tellers within the DNC that were there that saw the collusion, that saw that the fix was in against Bernie Sanders, that saw that there was corruption at the highest levels,” Hannity stated Thursday.
...
Hannity continued, saying, “Now I don’t know anything about Seth Rich in this sense. I don’t have any information about why he was murdered except that it was suspicious.

“And suspicious meaning it wasn’t a robbery as they’ve claimed but otherwise why would you not steal his wallet, his phone, his necklace, his jewelry and watch and everything else,” Hannity added.

Which brings us back to the NPR story, which was perhaps issued to discredit the Russia collusion story:

Butowsky sends an email to Fox News producers and hosts coaching them on how to frame the Rich story, according to the lawsuit. Recipients included Fox & Friends hosts, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, among others.

"I'm actually the one who's been putting this together but as you know, I keep my name out of things because I have no credibility," Butowsky wrote, as reflected in the Wheeler suit. "One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and ste[a]l emails and there was no collusion" between "Trump and the Russians."

This is what Wheeler's suit alleges, but that isn't necessarily true.

What is most certainly true is that either Wheeler or Butowsky concocted this:

In recent years, Butowsky has become outspoken about his political beliefs, becoming a familiar face on Fox News and its sister channel, the Fox Business Network. Butowsky has also appeared on Breitbart News' radio programs featuring then Breitbart Chairman Steve Bannon, who became Trump's campaign chief and is now the president's senior political strategist.

Butowsky emerged as a vocal backer of Trump's candidacy . He attended Trump's inauguration, posting pictures from the day on social media. In the Seth Rich case, Butowsky presented himself as a Good Samaritan who came across a sliver of information about Seth Rich's death and shared it with the Riches.

"I thought, 'You know what?' I'm going to help these people out," Butowsky said on the radio show of David Webb, a conservative Fox News contributor. "Somehow, these people need to know what happened to their little boy." He gave a similar account in an interview Monday with NPR.

It's a lengthy article and there is more intricacies contained within it.

LOL!
Deep State must be very scared about the growing Awan/DWS/DNC scandal.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
LOL!
Deep State must be very scared about the growing Awan/DWS/DNC scandal.

Yep! The same type story is being recirculated on twitter and such today! An ATS search would have shown this story already done a couple times.



Seth Rich Would Be Bombshell Fizzles - Wheeler Walks Back False Claims

like a wild dog the far right get hold of a story, maul it beyond recognition then end up arguing the entirely wrong point.

benghazi, pizzagate, emails, birth certificates to name a couple more examples.

a reply to: Greven

Good. This piece of garbage fake news has been dragging this poor family's name through the mud just because Seth worked for the DNC. The people who made this horse manure up need to pay the piper for libel.

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: IAMTAT
LOL!
Deep State must be very scared about the growing Awan/DWS/DNC scandal.

Yep! The same type story is being recirculated on twitter and such today! An ATS search would have shown this story already done a couple times.

Hilarious that Twitter is actually allowing #SethRich to finally trend.
Deep State desperation.

If NPR is pushing hard, there must be a "problem" in river city.

originally posted by: xuenchen
If NPR is pushing hard, there must be a "problem" in river city.

Yup! Awan/Espionage and SR/Murder stories are just starting to dovetail.
Deep State is desperately trying to head it off at the pass.

a reply to: Greven

Here's a link to the actual lawsuit:

Wheeler vs. Twenty-first Century Fox

Making up quotations so Fox could deliberately push a false narrative to detract from the Russian story, with the consent and the urging of the White House.

Oh the irony, but not surprising anymore.

OP, you sir have balls.


Seth Rich is like trying to argue against someones origin story. Seth Rich is the name all Trumpers revert back to in argument. I have a hrd time believing they would ever back down from this story.


When conspiracy theorists start saying ' the parents were bought'- logic is out the window.

Did Awan kill Seth rich? George Webb seems to think so and he was def getting paid for more than fixing some democratic computers.

I guess the same could be said about this guy, trying to run with fake Russian narratives. Unless he has proof the Russians were involved, which he doesn't. There is more evidence, although circumstantial about Seth Rich than his Russia claim.

originally posted by: bknapple32
OP, you sir have balls.


Seth Rich is like trying to argue against someones origin story. Seth Rich is the name all Trumpers revert back to in argument. I have a hrd time believing they would ever back down from this story.


When conspiracy theorists start saying ' the parents were bought'- logic is out the window.

This is so obnoxious with all their "fake news" rhetoric they are on about all the time. This story (Pizzagate too) is PROVEN fake news yet it keeps getting pushed like it is real. Meanwhile, they dismiss anything coming from the White House as "fake news" just because the guy who said it doesn't want to say his real name. The double standard is just ridiculous...

Strange... considering Wheeler posted this just the other day.

rod wheeler on Twitter: Follow the arrest of Awan closely. Connect the dots to "other" cases. (hint, hint) Just the beginning. Stay tuned.

I wonder what made him change his tune in the past 5 days?

originally posted by: Konduit
Strange... considering Wheeler posted this just the other day.

rod wheeler on Twitter: Follow the arrest of Awan closely. Connect the dots to "other" cases. (hint, hint) Just the beginning. Stay tuned.

I wonder what made him change his tune in the past 5 days?

One of Two reasons.
1.) Paid to file suit...as Deep State distraction from Awan espionage scandal
2.) Draw attention back to SR story and his roll in it.

originally posted by: Konduit

I wonder what made him change his tune in the past 5 days?

He was tutored on how to spell:

C-L-I-N-T-O-N

a reply to: Liquesence

The allegations in that lawsuit are pretty explosive. Not only is he claiming that Butowsky coordinated with a Fox News reporter to create a fake news story making baseless claims with nonexistent sources, he's claiming that Butowsky coordinated directly with the WH and that he and Butowsky met with Sean Spicer on April 20, 2017.

There's Fox News covering up their malfeasance, a plot to extort information from a Sy Hersh — all sorts of sleaziness, corruption and possible illegality (such as that extortion plot if it was carried out).

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Liquesence

The allegations in that lawsuit are pretty explosive. Not only is he claiming that Butowsky coordinated with a Fox News reporter to create a fake news story making baseless claims with nonexistent sources, he's claiming that Butowsky coordinated directly with the WH and that he and Butowsky met with Sean Spicer on April 20, 2017.

There's Fox News covering up their malfeasance, a plot to extort information from a Sy Hersh — all sorts of sleaziness, corruption and possible illegality (such as that extortion plot if it was carried out).

If this is true, it is terrible.

I am sick and tired of not having a free press. I don't care who is in office; the press is supposed to critique them in a fair and honest way and be the voice of the people. It is clear that this is not the case.

I will say its funny to see so many anti trumpers get heated about this story which has yet to be proven true.

Where were they when it was PROVEN that many in the MSM were in total cahoots with the DNC and Hillary?

But whatever, glad to have you aboard being upset about the failed state of the media.

The anti trumpers will dismiss and laugh at this, but believe in the biggest conspiracy of all.. Russian collusion..

No joke.

a reply to: Greven

Honestly, this administration is one of the most gullible that I can remember. Scaramucci just fell for a hacker pretending to be Priebus, as did several other officials. What they NEED to have is someone in information research who can vet stories for them.

They won't think to do that, but that's what is needed.