The Reporter Behind Those Outlandish Fox News Stories

[Judi Lynn]

Aug 06, 2017


On May 16, the day after The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump had divulged intelligence secrets to two Russian officials in the Oval Office, Sean Hannity devoted much of his show to the murder of 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Using a report from Fox 5, a Fox News affiliate in Washington, D.C., Hannity relayed the allegation that Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks prior to his death -- the suggestion being that Rich was the source of the hacked DNC emails in the 2016 election, not Russian hackers. Hannity would continue to talk about Rich’s murder for the next week. Breitbart and the Drudge Report also led with the Rich story, not the story about Trump.

Then it all fell apart. It took Fox News over a week to retract this baseless story, during which it devoted a significant portion of its prime-time hours to disseminating it. The final nail in the coffin of the Seth Rich-WikiLeaks story was driven home earlier this week. NPR’s David Folkenflik reported that private investigator Rod Wheeler, who was prominently quoted in the story, was suing Fox News, Fox News investigative journalist Malia Zimmerman and GOP financier Ed Butowsky (who hired Wheeler, supposedly on behalf of the Rich family). Wheeler’s lawsuit alleged that Zimmerman and Butowsky had invented his quotes and that, shockingly, Butowsky had discussed the story with White House officials, including Trump, before it was published.

The White House’s involvement is scandalous, but beyond that the Seth Rich story provides a window into how Fox News spreads explosive but flimsy stories. Malia Zimmerman, the reporter accused of fabricating the quotes, has a history of publishing questionable stories for Fox News, which uses them for hours of rabid programming.

Before joining Fox News in 2015, Zimmerman spent two very controversial decades as a conservative-leaning investigative reporter in Hawaii. Zimmerman was well-known for her close relationships with Republican donors and politicians, her selective use of sourcing and documents and for her pursuit of conspiracy theories.

More:
http://www.uexpress.com/new-republic/2017/8/6/the-reporter-behind-those-outlandish-fox

[BigmanPigman]

1. Aren't there regulations put into place to prevent "fabricating quotes"

and "questionable stories" or don't they apply to cable news?

[Sanity Claws]

2. No

Regulations, no.

[BigmanPigman]

3. Damn, and with this admin there won't be.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Only the power of the marketplace. Advertisers should stop advertising on Fakes News. Period. nt

[Dustlawyer]

5. The FCC regulates TV and radio. Like all regulatory agencies today they are

under-budget so much they cannot do their job if they wanted to. Also like other regulatory agencies, they are headed by insiders from the industry they are supposed to regulate. The effects are obvious.

The consolidation of ownership in markets by mega broadcast companies has left us with 6 major media companies that control 95% of what we see, hear, and read. They control what Americans think about and what they don't want us to such as campaign finance and the money in politics, climate change and many others.

We used to have rules separating the TV news rooms from the advertising departments. Now companies like BP can screw up the Gulf of Mexico, put out propaganda that they took care of the victims and the Gulf and there are no stations willing to report on what really happened for fear of losing advertising revenue from a major advertiser like BP or the other oil companies.

We used to require that the networks adhere to the truth and not knowingly broadcast falsehoods. Now Fox News can knowingly broadcast lies and a U.S. Court of Appeals excuses it by saying that Fox NEWS is "Entertainment" and thus allowed to mis-state the truth!

The propaganda is as dangerous and problematic as the money in Washington that has eliminated Representative Democracy. It is the reason Republicans are so angry and afraid to the point that they ignore actual facts and common sense. They have given us the Deplorables that stick by Trump no matter what he says or does.

[Brother Buzz]

6. FCC does not regulate cable

That being said, I do not disagree with what you are saying.

[Nitram]

7. I doubt it is just one reporter behind "all those outlandish Fox News stories."

There have been too many of them for far too long for one reporter to be responsible.

[BigmanPigman]

8. I recently read that Sinclair actually writes the stories that their anchors must read

on the air. Sinclair and now Circa are still going to be there even if Fux Ruse is abandoned by its advertisers. And they are bigger stakeholders in the conservative media markets than even than Murdoch's media empire. The fake prez loves them even more than Fux as well.