CONSPIRACY FANS WILL BE BUZZING OVER THIS ONE: While it’s true that DNC staffer Seth Rich’s murder was both tragic and mysterious (especially given the theories he was the real hacker) and also given the fact that “Arkancide” is a theory that people dangerous to Hillary Clinton have a way of dying under tragic and mysterious causes, Politico is reporting that a federal court threw out claims against Fox News for reporting on the story:

One, filed by Rich’s parents, claimed that Fox News intentionally tried to inflict emotional distress. The other was filed by a private detective, Rod Wheeler, alleging defamation…Fox News later retracted the article. The report, however, prompted a number of conspiracy theories because it contradicted assessments by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia was behind the hacking at the DNC.

I called this back in March here. As I said then and say now, while I have sympathy for the Rich family, the ability to report on this sort of thing — even if incorrectly on a good faith basis — is too important to penalize and discourage.