Seth Rich’s brother begs Hannity’s producer: Please stop pushing conspiracy theory about Wikileaks

Hotair ^ | 05/23/2017 | AllahPundit

[SeekAndFind]

“ARE WE STILL AIRING THAT SH*T?!” a Fox News reporter texted to the Daily Beast when asked for comment about Hannity going all-in on the Rich conspiracy theory.

They’re still airing that sh*t. The Rich family has asked them to stop.

NEW: Brother of Seth Rich pleads with @seanhannity to stop spreading conspiracy theory in letter to exec producer https://t.co/Z3VtVk2vRz pic.twitter.com/z0rphLWmXQ

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 23, 2017

The surge of interest in Rich’s murder started last Monday with a story from a Fox affiliate. According to PI Rod Wheeler, an FBI forensic report showed that thousands of emails to and from Wikileaks had been found on Rich’s computer. Connect the dots: If Rich, a DNC staffer, was in contact with Wikileaks and then Rich was murdered, Rich was probably the source of last summer’s DNC leaks. It wasn’t Russia! It was an inside job — and Rich, knowing too much, had to be eliminated by ClintonWorld. A few problems, though. An FBI source says the Bureau never had Rich’s laptop. A law enforcement source told NBC that there are no emails to or from anyone at Wikileaks on the computer. And Wheeler himself admitted that he got his info about the emails from a report on Fox News, not anything he had independently discovered.

But there’s a more basic objection to the story, via John Ziegler. Why the hell would anyone target Rich over a minor scandal like the DNC leaks and risk turning it into a much, much, much, much bigger one?

Let’s pretend that’s what really happened (LMAO). What exactly would be the motive for murdering Rich in the middle of a presidential election which you were widely expected to win?! So you are going to kill someone because they have created a political headache for you even though murdering them would obviously be a 10,000 times larger and more damaging scandal if it was ever found out?

Makes no sense. Plus, given how uniform the opinion is among U.S. intelligence outlets like the CIA and FBI that Russia was behind the DNC hacking, you need to believe that the conspiracy to cover up Rich’s identity as the true culprit goes very high and very wide among federal officers. This isn’t a matter of a few local cops hushing something up. If you think there’s something to the Rich story, you need to believe that Comey, Brennan, Clapper, and many others are in on it and that the Trump White House somehow can’t uncover the truth. President Hillary would have had an incentive to blame Russia and overlook Rich once in office, but President Trump doesn’t. To the contrary.

And yet, to the apparent dismay of reporters there, Fox News bombthrowers continue to cling to the possibility of Rich skullduggery. It’s not just Hannity. Newt Gingrich has pushed the idea, as has Geraldo Rivera. The Kremlin itself has begun pushing Seth Rich propaganda on Twitter, seizing an opportunity to shift blame for the hacking away from itself. It seems a matter of time before Trump is asked about it and answers either noncommittally or, true to form, credulously about the right-wing conspiracy theory du jour. Hannity remains the theory’s most ardent pursuer, though, and is promising more tonight — despite the appeal from the Rich family:

Wow. PLEASE READ ASAP https://t.co/wAmkwQkMMs

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 23, 2017

Go figure that Kim Dotcom might say something that helps him build a base of support inside the U.S. given his own legal issues. “The other reporters I’ve talked to [about this] are similarly pissed about the whole thing,” a second Fox reporter said to the Daily Beast. “Some find it embarrassing, others downright heartless… It’s just gross.” Makes me wonder if the news side of Fox isn’t about to take matters into their own hands, as they did with Andrew Napolitano pushing dubious bombshells, by using their own programming hours to try to debunk fake news being peddled by other shows on the network.

Not to be outdone, the “other” conservative cable news network, OAN, is now offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Rich’s killer. Why does righty media suddenly have Rich fever? This is part of it:

The reason Hannity's conspiracy stuff keeps getting crazier: when you win, how to still argue the world is in cahoots against you?

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) May 23, 2017

This, about the OAN reward, is part of it too:

It's stuff like this that'll make it hard for Fox to turn the page on the Ailes era. The market for this will be served one way or another. https://t.co/E0e2zMjZkC

— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) May 23, 2017

The Rich conspiracies are popular again right now, I think, because Trump has been besieged by Russiagate hits from the media lately and it’s the fastest route to letting him off the hook. There’s no Russiagate collusion because … Russia didn’t do anything. Seth Rich did it! Trump is innocent, therefore all of the Russiagate bombshells lately are fake news, etc etc. That wouldn’t be true even if Trump really is innocent of collusion with Moscow, which I think he is, since obstruction for political reasons is an offense in itself. But the more you can muddy the waters among his loyal supporters about what really happened, the better it is for him — it does more damage to their willingness to believe the MSM, it makes Trump look like the victim of a bona fide criminal conspiracy involving murder, and it paints the left as so ruthless that they’d be willing to kill one of their own for leaking some emails. Hannity won’t let it go easily.

Update: Lo and behold, as I’m writing this post, Fox has pulled its original Wheeler/FBI story. They are no longer “airing that sh*t.” For now.

See what I mean about the news bureau striking back?

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.

Will Hannity still be allowed to pursue the Kim Dotcom angle on his show tonight or is Fox management calling off the dogs entirely on this story? “We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted,” they say at the end of their retraction statement. Presumably that’s his green light to keep going.

Update: Case in point, Hannity just tweeted this after the Fox retraction of the story that rekindled interest in Rich:

Read Kim Dotcom and listen to democrats say over and over NO EVIDENCE of Collusion https://t.co/9ZhgpvtDkO https://t.co/hMouzXfzqE

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 23, 2017

[KavMan]

Reporters aren't interested in this story not because of the Family!

This Story if true, hurts Democrats!

[over3Owithabrain]

I don’t vilify them. I just don’t care what they think. They should be glad though that after a year of zero effort investigation their sons murder is getting a fresh look. But regardless it all needs to be looked into instead of hand wringing about how the parents feel. Again, he was a grown man not a baby

[Responsibility2nd]

Yep. Always follow the money.

I wonder how much cash the Rich family has collected off the Democrats to not just keep quite, but to squawk at Hannity and others as they uncover the truth.

Cash paid both over and (especially) under the table.

[smileyface]

“...we’ll hang from nooses!” HRC contemplating Trump win...
https://youtu.be/_NfFAaPZqs8

[over3Owithabrain]

A go fund me? To pay the police to investigate? This thing is getting weirder.

So obvious the DMV is in cover up mode

[smileyface]

Ding. Ding. Ding. Thread winner.

The Rich family, the Russia meme and impeachment, KimDotCom...

[higgmeister]

Put yourself in their position. Say your son worked for the RNC and was gunned down in the street. Then the same people who spread stories you don't believe and don't agree with start saying he was killed because he spilled the beans about Russian collusion in the election.

Would you really be very happy about that? Would you believe the rumor mongers? Maybe you'd think they were exploiting your family's loss for political reasons?

If there was any hint that my son was murdered by his employer for any reason, I would press for the most extensive investigation possible. If I was approached with a bribe that would provide a double imperative and I would yell that to the four winds. Anyone that would not, deserves to live under an outhouse for the rest of his life and die in ignominy.

[magglepuss]

Here’s the thing. Kimdotcom is not saying anything about the murder of Seth Rich. HE POTENTIALLY HAS INFORMATION ON THE LIE OF THE RUSSIAN HACKING THE DNC. The dems kept demanding a special prosecutor to investigate the Russian hacking story, now they have one. Mueller of course must investigate every legitimate lead he gets, and this is a very serious lead. The family should have been contacting the DNC about the constant carping about Russian hackers, because their son was always in the mix.

[justa-hairyape]

Foster and Scalia. Wet Works baby.

[Sooth2222]

On Sunday, July 10, 2016, Rich was shot about a block from his apartment in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[12][22][23][24][25][26] He had been at Lou's City Bar, a sports pub in the Columbia Heights neighborhood about 1.8 miles from his apartment, where he was a regular customer, and had left about 1:30 or 1:45 a.m. when the bar was closing.[27][26]

Police were alerted to gunfire at 4:20 am by an automated gunfire locator called ShotSpotter.[25][17] Rich was found conscious but later died in the hospital.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

If he was walking around DC at 4:20 AM, he was a risk taker. Being a risk-taker and being a Bernie Supporter is consistent with the profile of a leaker.

[higgmeister]

That’s why, with a heavy heart, I have started this fund...

https://www.gofundme.com/SethRich

Maybe somebody solved their money problems?

Reading between the lines I think Aaron Rich believes the Clinton mob killed his brother.

His murder remains a mystery, and despite the hard work of the detectives at the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, we have still been unable to get the answers to the questions surrounding his death. Because of the lack of clear evidence in the case, Seth’s job working for the Democratic National Committee and the caustic political environment we find ourselves in today, many people have used my brother’s murder for their own agendas. Every few weeks another conspiracy theory surfaces, another promise of credible information and another lack of evidence to support the crazy claims being made.

My family has received many offers of assistance in finding Seth’s killers, and we are so grateful for each and every one of them. It gives us hope to know that Seth isn’t forgotten and that his case remains on people’s minds.

[\/\/ayne]

[Fitzy_888]

Body Language: Seth Rich family (=> See stuffed Panda bear lower left.)
https://youtu.be/9mEu22KJjtU

Body Language: Seth Rich Attorney
https://youtu.be/Ji6e8fmBLOE

[Chauncey Gardiner]

The family is singing the same strange tune as the Scalia family; not pursuing.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Why the hell would anyone target Rich over a minor scandal like the DNC leaks and risk turning it into a much, much, much, much bigger one?

Because that's what megalomaniacal socialists do.

[Lady Heron]

If my child worked for the RNC, was murdered in the streets with nothing stolen, I found out the LEO's took his computer and no one knows where it is....that there are rumors he leaked emails to WikiLeaks....that there is a rumor he was still alive at the hospital and a possibility he was not taken care of...that there is a rumor he was shot as an example...

I would be demanding to know the real facts no matter if it brought down the RNC or was found out to be bs! Sorry, but something is very wrong here.

[Eleutheria5]

Because that’s heartless. It’s also crazy. It’s also fake news, and just a smokescreen to cover up Trump’s collusion with them rooskies to steal the election. That’s why Trump had Seth Rich kilt, after all. To distract everyone from them roooskies and the Joooos!!!!! Any sane rational person would have to conclude so./s

[Eleutheria5]

” What exactly would be the motive for murdering Rich in the middle of a presidential election which you were widely expected to win?! So you are going to kill someone because they have created a political headache for you even though murdering them would obviously be a 10,000 times larger and more damaging scandal if it was ever found out?

Makes no sense.”

We’ll never get found out, Bill. Did they find out about Vince Foster? White Water? China-gate? We’re invincible. Now I want that little fart eater offed.

Yes, ma’am. Hail to the chief.

[higgmeister]

I'm still proud of my vote for Mr. Nixon. I believe he had been led to believe he could find a DNC connection to the Kremlin. Interesting that the Democrats are now attempting to pin that on President Trump. Alinsky’s rules drive everything; pin it on the opposition before they do it to you.

Watergate was nothing compared to the The crimes of Hillary, which the DNC emails only breached the service.

[kanawa]

Methinks thou doth protest too much, Ed.

http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/brad-bauman-seth-rich-dnc-family-democrat-pastorum-group-wikileaks/