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  • 2016-09-21 (xsd:date)
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  • WikiLeaks Bombshell: Bill O’Reilly and Megan Kelly are Clinton Operatives (en)
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  • 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: 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: 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. (en)
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