A week after publishing a problematic account about the death of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich – an article that said Rich made contact with WikiLeaks before he was shot and killed in Washington, D.C. – Fox News retracted the story, saying it did not meet the organization's editorial standards.
"The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting," Fox said in a brief statement posted on its website Tuesday. "Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed."
The unsigned, 73-word "Statement on coverage of Seth Rich murder investigation" added: "We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted."
Fox News and its Washington, D.C., affiliate, WTTG, reported last week that Rich had leaked 44,053 DNC emails and 17,761 attachments to a now-deceased WikiLeaks director. The stories immediately gained traction on social media and among conservative news outlets – even as Rich's family rejected the reports.
The Fox News story was originally published on May 16 and cited "investigative sources" in reporting that Rich had made contact with WikiLeaks some time before he was killed – a case that remains unsolved. Fox's story quoted a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who claimed there was an email exchange between Rich and WikiLeaks – and suggested that "the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the DC police or FBI headquarters."
As of Tuesday morning, the story was still on the Fox News site, though the headline had changed: "Family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich blasts detective over report of WikiLeaks link," it read.
By Tuesday afternoon, however, the story was gone from the site. There was no editor's note attached to the original URL; just a message saying, "something has gone wrong . . . It seems you clicked on a bad link and stumbled upon our 404 page."
Rich's family said it was grateful for the story's removal.
"The family would like to thank Fox News for their retraction on a story that has caused deep pain and anguish to the family and has done harm to Seth Rich's legacy," the family said through a spokesman. "We are hopeful that in the future that Fox News will work with the family to ensure the highest degree of professionalism and scrutiny is followed so that only accurate facts are reported surrounding this case."
The explosive allegations were first reported by WTTG on May 15 and by Fox News the following day.
The reports cited Wheeler, the investigator whom the affiliate and the cable network said was hired by the Rich family and had previously worked for D.C. police. Wheeler was also identified in the original Fox News story as a Fox contributor.
Fox News also cited an unnamed federal investigator, who said Rich had transferred thousands of emails to a WikiLeaks director between January 2015 and May 2016.
WTTG kept the original story online but topped it with a lengthy editor's note detailing Wheeler's "verbatim exchange" with the TV station.
Wheeler told WTTG that "he had sources at the FBI confirming" communications between Rich and WikiLeaks, but "has since backtracked" from his original statements, the station's story said.
The Daily Caller also has taken down a story on the alleged Rich-WikiLeaks connection; that story originally cited Fox News' reporting.
Rich was killed on July 10, in northwest Washington. Police said his death was the result of a botched robbery.
Law enforcement officials have said that Rich's computer and email activity have been examined and suggest nothing that would connect him to WikiLeaks – which, 12 days after Rich's death, published 20,000 emails that embarrassed former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the DNC, and forced the ouster of its chairwoman.
Fox News' retraction came on the same day that Rich's brother, Aaron, wrote a letter asking the producer of Sean Hannity's show to stop spreading the conspiracy theory surrounding the former DNC staffer's death.
In recent days, Hannity has continued to suggest that Rich's death was a coverup. He and others have latched on to the idea that Rich – not Russia – was the source of the massive DNC email leak.
Hannity invited Kim Dotcom, a New Zealand-based Internet businessman now fighting extradition to the United States on copyright infringement and wire fraud charges, to appear on his Fox News show after Dotcom suggested that he had relevant details about Rich and WikiLeaks.
The letter from Rich's family was in response to Hannity's invitation to Dotcom.
"Nobody wants to solve Seth's murder more than we do," the letter said. "However, providing a platform to spread potentially false, damaging information will cause us additional pain, suffering and sorrow. By airing this information, you will continue to emotionally hurt us."
Even after Fox News retracted its report, Hannity continued to push the conspiracy theory with a tweet pointing to a story on his site.
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The Washington Post's Peter Hermann and David Weigel contributed to this story.