Judge Allows Libel Suit Against NPR Related to Seth Rich Case to Proceed NPR argued that many of the claims in its reports, like assertions that Fox’s reporting on the Rich murder was “baseless” and “fake news,” amounted to opinion and not the kind of factual claims that can be the basis for a libel suit. But Mazzant disagreed. “The statements made by Folkenflik were made as verifiable statements of fact,” the judge wrote. “The statements at issue were not merely expressing a subjective view. Looking at the context of the verifiable facts, nothing shows the statements expressed Folkenflik’s opinion or merely offer Folkenflik’s personal perspective on disputed facts.” NPR claimed that FOX News reports on the Seth Rich murder were ‘fake news’, but it now looks like they were the ones pushing ‘fake news’. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/07/npr-libel-seth-rich-1452707