Harris Campaign Called Out Over Dishonest Ads
The Kamala Harris campaign has been doing something more than a bit shady to lure in voters.
They are changing out headlines on news stories and running them as ads to make it appear as though all these outlets are behind everything she does (as if she needs more help on that front).
Once the story broke, however, at least one outlet is threatening to sue and the campaign is being called out for “cheating.”
Cheaters
The story first broke on Axios when the adjusted headlines were noticed.
You can see a summary of some of the ads in the X post below…
Harris campaign has been editing news headlines & descriptions in search ads that make it appear as if major outlets support her
—Google believes its sponsored disclosures are enough to keep voters from being misled, but media outlets may feel differentlyhttps://t.co/dU0KFhbeuy— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) August 13, 2024
Steve Hallstrom, the President and Managing Partner of Flag Family Media, which owns WDAY Radio, was livid over the ads.
He stated, “We feel insulted and violated by what was done here.
“You have a political campaign that used our news brand and our URL to effectively lie to people about the headline we wrote.
“They lied to every single person that saw that ad. It’s misleading, it’s dishonest, and it hurts us as the company, our news brand. So as of today, we’re starting to make some calls here. We are considering all of our options here, including legal action.”
Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer also tore into the campaign on this, a tactic the Trump campaign has not used, at least not yet.
Hemmer stated, “The trick was we’ll make it like an ad and we’ll reframe the headline so that when you are searching, maybe you see the spot, you read the headline, but maybe you don’t understand that it is actually sponsored by the campaign. Show it, guys. Here we go.
“So this involved, what, they cited CNN, NPR, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, a lot, and you would see this as you were going through your internet search, and um well, that’s cheating.”
MacCallum then added, “I should point out that Google says there was a glitch in their system, that some of the sort of barriers they tried to put in to make it clear what this is weren’t working. Oops! I wonder if it was true for other campaigns as well. We don’t know that yet, but they say they are looking into that.
“Just as an example, this is a Guardian headline: ‘VP Harris fights abortion bans. Harris defends reproductive freedom.’
“Well, those things are true, that’s a factual statement, that is something she backs and supports, but then they have a description under the headline.
“So, you know, there’s a headline when you read a news story, and then there is an under headline that you read in a news story, but it says this: ‘VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.’
“So, the second line in what looks like a news story is actually a campaign slogan, a campaign statement, and, you know, people — we look at so much information, take in so many things so quickly throughout the day, right?”
The Harris campaign never asked for approval from any of the news agencies to use their outlets in the ad.
As MacCallum later noted, with Iran trying to hack into the election, this is something that should not be tolerated.
It is completely dishonest, yet it is the Dems using the tactic, which, in essence, is fake news.
It is, at best, manipulative. And by the way, with the media gushing over her right now, why would they even resort to such a tactic?
Oh, that’s right… they are Dems and can do whatever they want without repercussions.
