NEW YORK _ Fox News and conservative talk show host Sean Hannity are under fire Tuesday for pushing a right-wing conspiracy theory that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich may have been killed because he provided emails to WikiLeaks.
On Tuesday, Fox News retracted the online story that an FBI forensics examination showed Rich leaked work emails to WikiLeaks before he was fatally shot on July 27.
Police have said they believe the killing was a botched robbery.
Despite that, Hannity has repeatedly raised questions about the circumstances of Rich's death. He defended his statements on Twitter on Tuesday, saying that he is "trying to find the truth."
In a statement retracting the story, Fox News said, "The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed. We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted."
Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group, blasted Fox's handling of the story.
"Just retracting the one online story hardly undoes the damage Fox News _ and specifically Sean Hannity _ has done by pushing baseless conspiracy theories about Rich's death," the group said.
Media Matters also published a list of his show's advertisers to put pressure on them to drop Hannity. Dozens of advertisers fled "The O'Reilly Factor" in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment _ a move that ultimately pressured Fox News into firing Bill O'Reilly.
O'Reilly, along with the late Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, were both ousted following a widening scandal over the network's handling of numerous sexual harassment claims from women who worked at the cable news network.
Now, Media Matters, a vocal critic of Fox News, is turning up the heat on Hannity, a conservative firebrand who remains one of the channel's remaining stars.
Hannity on Tuesday accused the group of "liberal facism."
He tweeted to his 2.37 million followers: "IMPORTANT! Mediamatters is trying to silence me, get me fired, pressure my advertising on radio & TV. Liberal Fascism. I need your help!!"
