As someone who's spent, conservatively, thousands of hours reporting on and thinking about Seth Rich, Fox News, and conspiracy theories, the timing of the settlement highlighted in @benyt's new column doesn't infuriate me as much as the substance of it 1/x

What's infuriating is the absence of any contrition, apology, or remediation by Fox, especially @seanhannity.

As I've reported, Hannity arguably did more than anyone else to amplify the baseless, discredited, and cruel conspiracy theories about Seth. 2/x

.@seanhannity hyped it on multiple nights on his Fox show, on his radio show, and on Twitter. We're talking about a combined potential audience here of ~tens of millions of people.~

Imagine one of the loudest voices in TV saying the following about your dead brother or dead son:

Even after https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF retracted its original story about Seth and WikiLeaks, Hannity kept hammering away.

“All you in the liberal media,” he said on his radio show, “I am not https://t.co/YVoDTvSQbr or https://t.co/jg1xOw4YqF. I retracted nothing.” 4/x

Only when Aaron, Seth's brother, pleaded with Hannity and one of his producers, Porter Berry, did Hannity back down.

Even then, he didn't retract or apologize.

Instead he said: “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time.” 5/x