(NEW YORK) — Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said Tuesday he’s backing off his speculation about the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich after talking with Rich’s family, which had appealed to the media to stop. The decision took Hannity off a potential collision course with his network, which earlier Tuesday had removed a week-old story about the case from its website because “it was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting.” The report quoted a private investigator suggesting that Rich had some connection to WikiLeaks and its leaks of Democratic National Committee emails during the last campaign. Rich’s family has said they don’t believe their son, who was shot in July 2016 in Washington, gave any information to WikiLeaks.