Sean Hannity reached new depths of phony-baloney sanctimony last night as he blatantly disrespected the wishes of the family of murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich – and had the gall to do so while making a big show of sympathy for the Rich family.

Sean Hannity told his viewers he will not stop "investigating" or "asking questions" about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich despite two requests from the family that he and others stop promoting conspiracy theories about Rich's death.

Seth Rich’s brother wrote to Hannity’s producer last week:

“Think about how you would feel losing a son or brother. And while dealing with this, you had baseless accusations of your lost family member being part of a vast conspiracy,” Aaron Rich wrote in the letter to “Hannity” executive producer Porter Berry, a copy of which was provided to CNN.

“As the family, we would hope to be the first people to learn about any such evidence and reasons for Seth’s death,” he added. “It is a travesty that you would prompt false conspiracy theories and other people’s agendas rather than work with the family to learn the truth.”

Hannity’s theory is that Rich died as the result of leaking DNC emails to Wikileaks and was murdered by some Clinton operatives in retaliation. If you think that Hannity actually cares about Rich’s fate, consider the fact that Hannity thinks his version of events “could completely shatter the narrative that, in fact, WikiLeaks was working with the Russians, or there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”

In addition to Seth’s brother’s plea to the Hannity show, Rich’s parents made a similar appeal in an op-ed in The Washington Post last week:

Still, conservative news outlets and commentators continue, day after painful day, to peddle discredited conspiracy theories that Seth was killed after having provided WikiLeaks with emails from the DNC. Those theories, which some reporters have since retracted, are baseless, and they are unspeakably cruel.

[…]

Seth’s death has been turned into a political football. … It just won’t stop. The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us.

[…]

We are asking you to please consider our feelings and words. There are people who are using our beloved Seth’s memory and legacy for their own political goals… We ask those purveying falsehoods to give us peace, and to give law enforcement the time and space to do the investigation they need to solve our son’s murder.

Last night, Hannity coyly flaunted his “sensitivity” to the family’s pain at the same time that he sent an unmistakable signal to his audience that he has no intention of letting up on his efforts to exploit Rich’s death. (Transcript via Media Matters, with minor edits):

HANNITY: I was asked by the family of the DNC staffer that was killed in July to pull back covering the story of the death because their son and their family was hurting. And now their family, out of consideration, seeing the pain that they were going through, they told me a number of times what was happening with them, and I was honestly glad to accommodate them. Because as a father I know that I would probably never recover if I lost one of my kids. I honestly don’t think it’s possible. I cannot imagine the pain this family has gone through. Now, out of respect for the family’s wishes, well, I decided for the time being not to discuss it unless there were further developments. But I also promised you, my audience, my loyal audience, that I will not stop investigating. I will not stop asking questions. And at a very high level, the bottom line here is the family wants the truth and I think the country deserves the truth, because this impacts so much of what the narrative in this country is now about, which is the left and their conspiracy theory. Now I can report, I am making progress. We will have a lot more coming probably sooner than later.

Watch Hannity’s disingenuousness above, from the May 30, 2017 Hannity.

Crossposted at News Hounds.
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