WorldNetDaily’s cynical, politically motivated exploitation of Seth Rich’s death has now reached the non-story phase, where WND is trying to play up anything — no matter how devoid of news value — just to keep the conspiracy going. And WND reporter Alicia Powe has been the responsibility to flog this story into the ground.
First up, Powe was apparently forced to bulk-email members of Congress for comment on the Rich non-story:
WND has asked 125 members of Congress to weigh in on the unsolved murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich, and not a single representative has agreed to address the case.
Only five members replied to WND’s request for an interview. All five declined.
The next day, Powe wrote of a White House petition in which “nearly 50,000 Americans are now urging President Trump to press for an official investigation into the unsolved murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. Powe makes sure to point out that 100,000 signatures are needed to get a response from the White House, and her article is littered with links to the petition.
The petition, by the way, says it was “created by J.F.” Is that WND editor Joseph Farah? He’s not above doing such self-promotion.
In her latest article, Powe writes a second story whining about the fact that Rich’s hospital records are sealed under federal law and that no matter how much she harasses local hospitals about it, they won’t tell her where Rich was treated after the apparent botched robbery attempt that killed him. Still, Powe is in full conspiracy mode anyway:
It’s perhaps the simplest question in the Seth Rich murder mystery that everyone involved in the case won’t answer: What hospital admitted and treated the DNC staffer before a physician pronounced him dead on that fateful morning of July 10, 2016?
Now emergency responders, along with police and two local hospitals, are refusing to answer that basic question.
And the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has reportedly refused to release Rich’s autopsy report.
Because it’s none of your business, Alicia. You (and your bosses) don’t seem to understand that basic fact of privacy.
Local officials’ refusal to violate federal law in order to placate malicious conspiracy-mongerers is not a story, and Powe and WND should stop pretending otherwise.