The Seth Rich "conspiracy" shows how fake news still works

Washington Post ^ | 05/22/2017 | By David Weigel

[SeekAndFind]

On July 10, at 4:19 a.m., gunfire was detected in the District's Bloomingdale neighborhood. Not five minutes later, police found Seth Rich, a 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer, lying on the ground, dying from a bullet wound to his back. A conscious Rich was transported to the hospital; by daybreak, he was dead.

Nearly one year later, Rich's death remains one of America's thousands of unsolved murders — and the focus of endless conspiracy theories, spread this past week by Fox News, alt-right social media, a local D.C. news station and the Russian embassy in Britain. The reemergence of the conspiracy theory this week, which did not lack for real news, revealed plenty about the fake news ecosystem (or to use BuzzFeed's useful phrase, “the upside-down media”) in the Trump era. It also happened to cause untold pain for the Rich family, which has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the so-called private investigator who led this dive back into the fever swamp.

[Family of slain DNC staffer fights back against conspiracy theories with cease-and-desist letter]

Here's what we learned.

TV news can be an easy mark. This iteration of the Seth Rich story started when the District's own Fox 5 ran a Monday night “exclusive,” citing one source — a Fox New legal commentator, Rod Wheeler — for a “big break in the investigation.” Reporter Marina Marraco reported that “conspiracy theories” could “be proven right,” as Wheeler was saying what had been rumored since last year: Rich might have leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, making him the target of an assassination.

“You have information that could link Seth Rich to WikiLeaks?” asked Marraco.

“Absolutely. Yeah. That's confirmed,” said Wheeler,

[SeekAndFind]

Who the heck calls himself Kim Dotcom and how does he expect people to take him seriously?

[Hot Tabasco]

here is video of the death which shows two people briefly stalk him, shoot him twice in the back and then run away, taking nothing.

So what is your source for that information? This is the first I've ever heard of the video......

[Hot Tabasco]

Who the heck calls himself Kim Dotcom and how does he expect people to take him seriously?

He's a famous hacker and one time multi-millionaire who built a down load empire similar to Napster until he was busted by the U.S. govt. for copyright infringement. He's living in NZ, fighting extradition to the U.S..........

All you need to know about him can be found on Google.......Google is your friend.

[greeneyes]

If the WaPo calls it fake, then 99% of the time it is true.

[Fido969]

Oh, brother. There’s one born every minute.

So, how is that “proof” coming, sucker?