Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

Family of Slain DNC Staffer Seth Rich Suing Fox “News“ Over Retracted Story

StringerBell

StringerBell

OG
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/breakin...eth-rich-suing-fox-news-over-retracted-story/

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4410424-Rich-family-complaint-March-13-2018.html

“These actions were so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and are atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

That’s from a lawsuit filed by the family of Seth Rich against Fox News, an investigative reporter and a network contributor over a retracted report by the outlet that added fuel to the conspiracy that the slain Democratic National Committee staffer was killed because of his ties to Wikileaks.

Rich was fatally shot in Washington D.C. in July 2016, and while police have yet to solve the murder, they have repeatedly stressed that there is no evidence the DNC staffer was killed because he sent the hacked DNC emails to Wikileaks — as the conspiracy theory claims.

Rich’s family is suing the network, FoxNews.com investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman and Fox News contributor Ed Butowsky over a May 16, 2017, Fox News article the lawsuit claims contained “false and fabricated facts.”

Per an ABC News report on the lawsuit:

In the suit, which was obtained by ABC News, Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Rich, claim that Fox News investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman and contributor Ed Butowsky reached out to the family under false pretenses to support stories that Seth Rich leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

The lawsuit claims that Fox News, Zimmerman and Butowsky are liable for the harm caused by the report because they “aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress” caused by the story about Seth Rich and alleges that Fox News provided with a national platform to develop what the lawsuit dubs a “sham story.”

The Rich family claims that the “defendants’ conduct was extreme and outrageous” in what they allege was a deliberate effort to portray Seth Rich as a “criminal and traitor to the United States.”

While FoxNews.com swiftly retracted the story after it was debunked, Fox News’s Sean Hannity bizarrely continued to cover the story unabated on his primetime show, despite all available evidence and pleas from the family to stop exploiting their son’s murder for political gain. He eventually dropped the story after speaking with Rich’s family, telling his audience they asked him to pull back.

Fox News told Mediaite in a comment: “We can’t comment on this pending litigation.”
Click to expand...
 
“These actions were so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and are atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.”

This is like the most educated, uppity, respectful, and well spoken way of saying "you're full of shit" I've ever seen. I'mma have to steal this shit.
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/seth-rich-parents-son-murdered-again-fox-news

Seth Rich’s Parents: Our Son Was ‘Murdered Again’ With Fake Fox News Story

The parents of Seth Rich, a former Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered in July 2016, said in an interview published Thursday that they felt their son was “murdered again” when Fox News published a since-retracted story linking their son to the hack and release of thousands of DNC emails.

“Your son is murdered again, and this time it’s worse than the first time,” Seth Rich’s mother Mary Rich told ABC News. “We lost his body this first time, and the second time we lost his soul. They took more from us with the lies. We want our son’s life, and his soul restored.”

The Rich family on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Fox News, reporter Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky, a Republican donor who occasionally appeared on air. The lawsuit alleges that Zimmerman and Butowsky reached out to the Riches under false pretenses and claimed that they wanted to help solve Seth Rich’s murder, but later painted their son as a criminal and a traitor, according to ABC News.

In July 2016, Seth Rich was shot in the back several times and later died in the hospital. Police said that Rich may have been the victim of a botched robbery, but his murder still remains unsolved. Fox News in May 2017 published a story where it falsely claimed that Seth Rich was murdered because he was involved in the hack and release of thousands of DNC emails in the summer of 2016.

The U.S. intelligence community in October 2016 said that the Russian government was behind the hacks. Fox News retracted the story about Seth Rich just days after it was published, but the family claims the damage was still significant.

Mary Rich told ABC News that her son’s “computer didn’t have anything on it,” and that Fox News “took a rumor and ran with it” and never called the family to check any facts.

“What has to come out is the truth, and hopefully when we take it to court, they’ll hear it again, what we’ve told them already,” she said. “I want the people who started the lies, who are responsible for lies to be held accountable. This has got to stop.”
Click to expand...

 
https://www.mediaite.com/online/set...times-others-for-pushing-conspiracy-theories/

Seth Rich’s Brother Files Lawsuit Against Washington Times, Others For Pushing Conspiracy Theories


Earlier this month, the family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich filed a lawsuit against Fox News over a since-retracted report that pushed a conspiracy theory that Rich had been murdered over his ties to WikiLeaks. Now Rich’s brother, Aaron Rich, has filed a lawsuit against a conservative outlet and others for acting “with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Named in Aaron Rich’s lawsuit are the Washington Times, right-wing activist Matt Couch, Couch’s media company and businessman Ed Butowsky, per CNN Money. If Butowsky sounds familiar, it is because he’s also named in the Fox News lawsuit, as he was a central figure in getting that retracted story written and published.

Butowsky, who has been a leading figure in peddling the theory that Seth Rich was killed in retribution for leaking DNC emails to WikiLeaks, is named in this suit due to participating in a Periscope video hosted by Couch in which he claimed Aaron Rich “needs to come out and admit money in his account.” Couch would reply to Butowsky with the following, according to the lawsuit:

“Ed just put it out there—Aaron Rich accepted money. Aaron Rich had money from WikiLeaks go into his personal account. Think about that. Aaron Rich had WikiLeaks money go into his personal account. Ok?”

As the suit notes, Butowsky and Couch have engaged in advancing a conspiracy that Aaron Rich was was the one who provided the technical know-how to his brother when it came to leaking stolen documents to WikiLeaks for money and then tried to help cover up the crime.

The Times is also named in the suit over an opinion piece it published earlier this month that stated that it is “well known in intelligence circles that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and was paid by Wikileaks for that information.” The article didn’t cite any sources for that claim. The suit states that the publication was asked to retract the article over the false statements. As of this publication, the piece is still up.
Click to expand...
 
https://www.mediaite.com/online/fox...ed-seth-rich-report-couldve-seen-him-as-hero/

Fox News in Legal Filing: Readers of Our Retracted Seth Rich Report Could’ve Seen Him as ‘Hero’


You may remember a few weeks ago when the family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich filed a lawsuit against Fox News over the retracted story about questions surrounding his death.

Rich’s family has expressed their sorrow and outrage over the conspiracy theories that have spread about Seth, and the lawsuit says Fox News, reporter Malia Zimmerman, and Ed Butowsky (a political commentator and financial adviser who was looking into Rich’s death) “aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

The lawsuit involves a 2017 article published on FoxNews.com, and covered on the cable network, that tied his death to the conspiracy theory that Rich passed DNC emails to Wikileaks.

Fox News’s motion to dismiss, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, cites a failure to state a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Among the many arguments laid out in the motion is this:

Although Plaintiffs assert that the Fox News article caused them pain, other readers might well consider their son to be a hero. Far from condemning Seth Rich for the purported leak, the Fox News article portrayed him as a whistleblower who released the DNC emails to expose that “top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the party’s presidential nominee.”

It goes on to say that “the article contained a photo of Rich in an American flag ensemble above the cutline: ‘Rich was fiercely patriotic, say family members.'”
Click to expand...

 
talkingpointsmemo.com

Federal Appeals Court Rules Seth Rich’s Family Can Sue Fox News

Seth Rich’s family can sue Fox News over the retracted story it ran on a far-right conspiracy theory surrounding their son’s death.
talkingpointsmemo.com

Federal Appeals Court Rules Seth Rich’s Family Can Sue Fox News


Seth Rich’s family can sue Fox News over the retracted story it ran on a far-right conspiracy theory surrounding their son’s death.

A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Friday ruled against a previous district court’s order to dismiss their lawsuit complaint, arguing that the family, Joel and Mary Rich, could in fact sue over emotional distress they claim was caused by the May 2017 article. The article alleged that Seth Rich had leaked Democratic National Committee emails to WikiLeaks and implied that that move had resulted in his murder. The article was retracted a week later for not meeting Fox News’ journalistic standards.

Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi argued in the Friday ruling that the Riches had “sufficiently pleaded extreme and outrageous conduct” by the Fox News defendants.

In a statement shared with TPM Friday, Fox News expressed its condolences to the family but maintained the network was innocent of the allegations.

“The court’s ruling today permits Mr. and Mrs. Rich to proceed with discovery to determine whether there is a factual basis for their claims against FOX News,” the spokesperson said. “And while we extend the Rich family our deepest condolences for their loss, we believe that discovery will demonstrate that FOX News did not engage in conduct that will support the Riches’ claims. We will be evaluating our next legal steps.”

Police believe that Seth Rich was shot and killed in his Washington, D.C. home following a botched robbery in July 2016. At the time, he was working for the DNC. The Rich family sued Fox News and the reporter Malia Zimmerman, as well as Fox News guest Ed Butowsky, over the retracted story, but the lawsuit was dismissed in August 2018 when U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan ruled in favor of longstanding media law that argues a dead person cannot be defamed and said the argument of emotional distress was not sufficient.

The appeals court ruling will kick the suit back to Daniels.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top