On 20 September 2016, the unreliable USA Supreme web site published an article reporting that DNCLeaks had revealed that Fox News political commentators Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly were secret operatives working for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign:

The article drew information from WikiLeaks’ massive dump of Democratic National Committee e-mails in July 2016, which included a 22 April 2016 message from former DNC communications staffer Pablo Manriquez to DNC communications head Luis Miranda:

From: Manriquez, Pablo

Sent: Friday, April 22, 2016 3:17 PM

To: Miranda, Luis

Subject: Re: 27 April – NYC Meeting Agenda HuffPost NYC wants to meet too about their new livestreaming program in the aftermath of HuffPostLive. On Apr 22, 2016, at 1:10 PM, Manriquez, Pablo

<ManriquezP@dnc.org<mailto:ManriquezP@dnc.org>> wrote: This is who I will meet with in NYC. At each meeting, I’ll discuss hits we’ve executed (if relevant) and future hits. Anything I should add? At Fox News —

• America’s Newsroom HQ Team

• Shepard Smith Reporting Team

• Kelly File Team

• O’Reilly Factor Team

Commentators and conspiracy theorists maintained that this e-mail thread confirmed that Megyn Kelly and Bill O’Reilly had colluded with the DNC to offer Hillary Clinton positive press. The e-mail mentioned “hits we’ve executed” and “future hits,” which were interpreted by some readers as references to “hit pieces” (i.e., attempts to turn public opinion against someone through the appearance of objective reporting or editorializing) — meaning that Fox commentators were colluding with the DNC to attack political opponents of Hillary Clinton (or Democrats in general).

However, Manriquez and Miranda both worked for the DNC’s communications arm, a line of work that involves public relations and media coverage. In the public relations industry, the term “hit” (also described as “clips” or simply “coverage”) is used to mean coverage or press attention they have secured for clients or employers.

Public relations agency BLASTmedia publishes a public relations glossary that defines the term “hit”:

Coverage/Clip/Hits — An article, story, blog or segment that mentions your client. Also refers to the physical copy of that mention that can be given to clients.

PR companies commonly provide lists of successful hits they have secured for clients as examples of media mentions they have obtained. In this case, Manriquez’s job was to secure coverage for Hillary Clinton as part of his position, and he listed his “hits” in a report to Miranda, a communications higher-up.

No portion of the e-mail affirmed or even suggested that Fox News (or BuzzFeed, Reuters, NowThis, MSNBC, or CNN) were “operatives” of the Clinton campaign, nor did it document any collusion between Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, and the DNC.

Earlier in September 2016, USA Supreme advanced a similar falsehood about WikiLeaks and threats supposedly made against Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to force him out of the race.