Howard Kurtz Addresses Seth Rich: ‘Would Have Been Better’ if Fox News Never Published Story

In what has already been a drama-filled year for the network, Fox News is dealing with some more unwanted attention over star Sean Hannity’s embrace of a conspiracy theory surrounding the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. Earlier this month, Fox News ran a story claiming that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks before being killed. Despite the story almost immediately being debunked, Hannity ran with it, pushing the unproven claims on a nightly basis.

With Fox News having retracted the story, Hannity stating on-air that he’ll stop speaking about it for the time being and Hannity’s advertisers starting to flee his program, Fox News media correspondent Howard Kurtz addressed the issue today on MediaBuzz.

Highlighting comments from the Rich family after the story was published and Fox News’ statement when they took it down last week, Kurtz observed that FNC made the right decision. But, perhaps, could have made a better one in the first place.

“On this tragic subject with no evidence to contradict the police account that is a very good decision,” he noted. “And it would have been better if Fox’s website had never published that story.”

Kurtz went on to detail how Hannity initially stood by the story and hit back against critics accusing him of pushing a conspiracy by citing the Trump/Russia collusion story. He further noted that Hannity has since stopped talking about it and has seen ads pulled from his show.

Last week, Hannity announced he was taking some days off to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend. Of course, this has led to speculation that Hannity could be on his way out. However, the network has issued a statement of public support for the conservative commentator.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

—

Follow Justin Baragona on Twitter: @justinbaragona

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com