RantCrush Top 5: August 1, 2017

A lawsuit has been filed against Fox News and a Donald Trump supporter named Ed Butowsky, alleging that the network and Butowsky conspired to make up the conspiracy theory about Seth Rich. Rich was a young DNC staffer who was stabbed to death in Washington D.C.; police concluded that his murder was likely a robbery attempt that went south. But Fox News helped propagate a theory that Rich was murdered by the Hillary Clinton campaign because he provided information to WikiLeaks.

Rod Wheeler, a commentator for Fox News, is behind the lawsuit. He claims that Butowsky hired him to look into the story, and that Butowsky set up a meeting between the two of them and former WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer. He claims that Fox News misquoted him and fabricated information. He argues that when the story fell apart and was retracted, all the blame was put on him and it ruined his reputation.

This is a sad and extraordinary reconstruction of how fake news is propagated in the age of Trump: https://t.co/6NdEhsTteE

— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) August 1, 2017

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.