Ben Smith, The New York Times
Published: 18 Jan 2021 01:04 PM BdST
Updated: 18 Jan 2021 01:04 PM BdST The Fox News newsroom in New York, April 17, 2019. The New York Times
On Oct 12, 2020, Fox News agreed to pay millions of dollars to the family of a murdered Democratic National Committee staff member, implicitly acknowledging what saner minds knew long ago: that the network had repeatedly hyped a false claim that the young staff member, Seth Rich, was involved in leaking DNC emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. (Russian intelligence officers, in fact, had hacked and leaked the emails.) );
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Fox’s decision to settle with the Rich family came just before its marquee hosts, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, were set to be questioned under oath in the case, a potentially embarrassing moment. And Fox paid so much that the network didn’t have to apologize for the May 2017 story on FoxNews.com.
By Zachary PetrizzoJan 17th, 2021, 10:30 pm
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Fox News had a very unique mandate attached to their settlement with the parents of murdered DNC staffer
Seth Rich,
Joel Rich and
The revelations came Sunday night in a column from
The New York Times media columnist
Ben Smith.
The lawsuit from the Rich family came after Fox News fueled the conspiracy theory that Seth Rich, a DNC staffer police believe was killed in a botched robbery, was actually assassinated because he sent DNC emails to Wikileaks. The baseless theory was pushed by supporters of President
Donald Trump in a bid to absolve Russia in the DNC hack.
Fox News Insisted Seth Rich Settlement Stay Secret Until After Presidential Election
“Fox paid so much that the network didn’t have to apologize” for pushing conspiracy theories about Rich’s death, says New York TimesMadeline Roth | January 18, 2021 @ 9:53 AM Last Updated: January 18, 2021 @ 10:11 AM
Getty Images
Fox News’ settlement with the parents of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich came with one very unique provision: The deal had to stay secret until after the presidential election.
According to New York Times columnist Ben Smith, Fox News agreed to pay the multimillion-dollar settlement to Rich’s family only if the cable news network wouldn’t be required to apologize for lying about Rich’s murder, and only if the deal was not disclosed until after the Nov. 3 election.