Fox News officials made it a condition of their settlement with the parents of Seth Rich, who was assassinated in 2016, that the settlement could not be announced until after the US presidential election in November.
Seth Rich, a member of the Democratic National Committee, was shot dead in July 2016 near his Washington home. The murder is still unsolved, but the police believe that it was a failed robbery attempt.
Numerous conspiracy theories were formed around his murder, including the theory that he had leaked e-mails from the National Committee’s computer system to Wikileaks. Among other things, Sean Hannity, one of Fox’s hosts, repeatedly discussed this conspiracy theory.
According to experts who have investigated the case and the US intelligence community, hackers from Russia’s intelligence service, GRU, stole the emails from the National Committee’s computer system.
The news was eventually taken out of the publication, but Rich’s parents sued Fox News over it and the coverage of Hannity and other mantras on the station. In November, it became so public that the media’s representatives made a court settlement with the parents.
That was done shortly before Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs were to testify in the case.
The New York Times’ coverage of the settlement says it was particularly high and, by paying more, the media avoided publishing an apology on Fox News’ website. It also states that the agreement stipulated that its existence could not be made public until after the presidential election, which took place on 3 November.
An NYT reporter says the condition is indicative of Fox’s connection to the outgoing President Donald Trump’s propaganda machine, and that the station’s representatives feared angering him ahead of the election.
Aaron Rich, Seth’s brother, also filed a lawsuit against men who went viral on Seth Rich’s conspiracy theories, and both formally apologized last week. In addition, they withdrew their statements about the murder.
