Interestingly it looks like there's
an internal struggle over just how far down the right-wingnut rabbit hole Faux News can go. Seriously if you went to work for them, you HAD to know what they were all about when you took the job. It's like working for a tobacco company and being shocked they publish bullshit "studies" that claim cigarettes aren't dangerous. I remember a while back we discussed if Rupert's sons wanted to try to pull the network towards legitimacy and away from insanity ... which, coincidentally, rhymes with Hannity. Maybe this is that conflict continuing to play out.
Quote
Fox News staffers are growing increasingly dismayed as network star Sean Hannity and others continue to promote the unfounded conspiracy theory that Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer was murdered last year for talking to WikiLeaks.
The Daily Beast spoke to nearly a dozen reporters, pundits, and hosts inside Fox News who all conveyed the same sentiment: Hannity is “embarrassing” the network, and the promotion of the Rich conspiracy theory is senselessly cruel to a grieving family.
“ARE WE STILL AIRING THAT SHIT?!” one Fox News political reporter, who says they are furious that the conservative cable-news giant is entertaining the conspiracy theory, messaged The Daily Beast when informed of recent coverage.
The story was debunked, was resurrected, and quickly fell completely apart again but that didn't slow down the conspiracy crowd on Faux.
Quote
Nevertheless, the conspiracy theory has persisted on Fox News.
It gained an additional on-air advocate on Sunday when Newt Gingrich told reliably unskeptical Fox & Friends hosts: “We have this very strange story now of this young man who worked for the Democratic National Committee, who apparently was assassinated at 4 in the morning, having given WikiLeaks something like 53,000 emails and 17,000 attachments.”
The Russian Embassy in the U.K. also got in on the action last week, following Fox News’ lead. “#WikiLeaks informer Seth Rich murdered in US but MSM was so busy accusing Russian hackers to take notice,” the embassy tweeted.
Hannity angrily responded on Sunday to critics on Twitter with messages like, “Why do u and the lib media keep advancing the unhinged ‘Trump/Russia’ conspiracy? Any evidence? Do you believe the ‘robbery’ story?”
“Is it possible that one greatest lies ever told is soon exposed?” he fired off in another tweet. “How will the tin foil hat destroy Trump media and deep state deal with this.” Hannity also hinted at the real motivation for his parroting of a groundless conspiracy theory: “If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion.”
Fellow Fox News star Geraldo Rivera embraced the conspiracy on Monday afternoon, tweeting: “1) #SethRich shot in back(2)worked for #DNC which, (3)screwed @BernieSanders 4)#WIKILEAKS screwed DNC(5)Did #sethrich leak?(6)is it related?”
Multiple sources said that hard-news reporters and staffers at the network are aghast at the network’s ongoing coddling of the baseless story and wonder why it has been allowed to continue.
Fox News staff spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity.
“The other reporters I’ve talked to [about this] are similarly pissed about the whole thing,” another Fox reporter said. “Some find it embarrassing, others downright heartless [to spread this].”
“It’s just gross,” the reporter added.