Too close for comfort?

Fox News is the latest news source to stumble covering the White House since President Donald Trump took office and declared an end to the media status quo in Washington, D.C. But where CNN, The New York Times, and The Associated Press have issued corrections or retractions of negative coverage of President Donald Trump, Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler claims the network used him as a pawn in a coordinated effort to promote a false, pro-Trump narrative.

The suit revolves around a May story Fox later retracted claiming murdered Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich leaked thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign to WikiLeaks. The Fox story relied on Wheeler and anonymous sources to back up the assertion that 27-year-old Rich was behind the email leaks and not Russian hackers. Police said Rich was killed July 10, 2016, in a robbery attempt by an unknown suspect.

The lawsuit details a chain of communication between Wheeler, Republican donor Ed Butowsky, and Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman that, if true, would show Butowsky manipulated the Rich family into hiring Wheeler, a former detective, to reinvestigate their son’s murder. The suit also accuses Butowsky of pushing the story to Fox News, which Wheeler says fabricated quotes from him to lend credibility to the theory that Rich sent the Clinton emails to WikiLeaks.

Fox News retracted the report a week later after denouncements from Wheeler and the Rich family. Now the news organization faces accusations that it didn’t just botch the story, but it might have deliberately contrived the narrative to help the White House discredit the theory that the Russians were involved in the Clinton email hack.

Wheeler’s lawsuit includes a copy of an email Butowsky supposedly sent to Fox News producers the night before the report aired, telling them, “One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and ste[a]l emails and there was no collusion” between Trump and the Russians.

Wheeler also claims Butowsky texted him 36 hours before the story posted online, saying, “Not to add pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It’s now all up to you.” Butowsky now claims the text was not a serious threat and he wrote it in jest. He also says he never discussed the story with anyone at the White House. Wheeler’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, told Yahoo News he wants to depose Trump and former White House communications director Sean Spicer to see if that’s true.

Fox News and the White House both deny they collaborated on the story.

“The accusation that FoxNews.com published Malia Zimmerman’s story to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue is completely erroneous,” Fox News President Jay Wallace said in a statement. And White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders assured reporters Tuesday the president didn’t have any involvement with the production of the retracted story.

Fox News has a strong position in the market right now, leading not just TV news channels but also all of cable as the top station in daytime ratings for the past 13 months, according to TV Newser. It regularly outperforms MSNBC and CNN in primetime ratings, too.

The network has already faced several public relations crises in recent years, most notably the ousters of president Roger Ailes and commentator Bill O’Reilly amid sexual harassment scandals. It bounced back easily from a brief ratings dip after O’Reilly was fired in April. While this lawsuit could spell doom for individuals at Fox like Zimmerman, the network appears to have a strong enough base of viewers to weather storms like this.

Hollywood hacks

HBO executives are holding their breath to see how hackers will use a mammoth amount of data stolen from the company July 30. The cyberattack on HBO was about seven times bigger than the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures that caused major public relations damage to the studio. So far, the hackers have not made any ransom demands of HBO and have released little data. They leaked the script of the Aug. 6 episode of Game of Thrones, the sitting king of the HBO lineup, and a few unaired episodes of lesser-known shows. The stolen data could also include financial documents and customer information. Cyberattacks on Hollywood are on the rise. Six studios and talent agencies have been hit with hacking and extortion attempts in the past year, Tatiana Siegel of The Hollywood Reporter reported. The attack could affect the value of HBO’s parent company, Time Warner, which is in negotiations to sell to ATT. —L.L.

Familiar faces

The lead actors from the London production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will reprise their roles in the play when it comes to Broadway next year. American audiences will see the actors who originated the roles playing Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley Potter, Albus Potter, Draco Malfoy, and Scorpius Malfoy. The play is set years after the end of J.K. Rowling’s series and focuses on struggles Harry Potter’s son has at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. —L.L.

Voice of experience

Rush Limbaugh celebrated 30 years on the air this week. Lately, the conservative firebrand has voiced frustration with the Republican Party for not pushing its agenda far or fast enough. “The Republicans run the show. It’s time for the Republicans to start acting like it. Politics is what it is. The Republicans don’t appear to want to play the game,” Limbaugh said Monday. —L.L.

Natural beauty

National Geographic has announced the winners of its travel photo contest of the year. The grand prize went to a photo of volcanic lightning striking from an ash plume over the Colimo Volcano in Mexico. The galleries of winners take viewers on a stunning visual tour of the world. —L.L.

Coming soon

Sean Hannity is producing a film with Kevin Sorbo, the star of 2014’s God’s Not Dead. In Let There Be Light, Sorbo (also directing) stars as an atheist who has a near-death experience that challenges his beliefs. The film is scheduled for release Oct. 27. —L.L.