Axios reported that presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has edited news headlines to appear favorable to her within Google search ads.
Literal fake news.
Maybe this will finally make the media stop worshipping presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Oh, who am I kidding? I doubt the campaign had to change much since the MSM is obviously on her side.
A source told Axios that “the campaign buys search ads with news links to give voters searching for information about Vice President Harris more context.”
The campaign has rewritten headlines since August 3, targeting over a dozen outlets:
- The Associated Press
- CBS News
- CNN
- The Guardian
- The Independent UK
- NPR
- PBS
- Time
- USA Today
The Guardian, CNN, USA Today, and NPR told Axios they had no idea the Harris campaign had these ads.
“While we understand why an organization might wish to align itself with the Guardian’s trusted brand, we need to ensure it is being used appropriately and with our permission,” a Guardian spokesperson told Axios. “We’ll be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice.”
Harris’s campaign has even edited headlines in local markets, such as North Dakota radio station WDAY:
- The ads include links to real articles from the news outlets, but the headlines and supporting text have been altered to read as though the articles support the Harris campaign’s objectives.
- For example, an ad that ran alongside an article from The Guardian shows a headline that reads “VP Harris Fights Abortion Bans – Harris Defends Repro Freedom” and then includes supporting text underneath the headline that reads, “VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.”
- An ad featuring a link to an NPR story reads, “Harris Will Lower Health Costs,” with supporting text that says, “Kamala Harris will lower the cost of high-quality affordable health care.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s campaign has not edited headlines.
The actions don’t violate any Google policies, even though the ads look realistic. Axios pointed out that the campaign does not clarify that the image is an ad and that they wrote the headline, not the media organization.
Past campaigns have manipulated headlines in ads.
However, it’s a fine line, especially for people who claim Trump lies and manipulates the truth:
- Facebook banned the ability for advertisers to edit text from Instant Article news links in their ads in 2017, citing its “continuing efforts to stop the spread of misinformation and false news.”
- Google argues that because ads on Search are prominently labeled as “Sponsored,” they’re “easily distinguishable from Search results.”
- For years, a Google spokesperson said, “we’ve provided additional levels of transparency for election ads specifically.”
Honestly, I can barely tell the difference. The MSM has quickly propped up Harris, barely questioning how President Joe Biden came to the decision to drop out and why the transition to Harris has been so seamless. I’m not suspicious at all.
Reporters aren’t complaining about the lack of interviews. Reporters aren’t complaining about no platform. Reporters aren’t looking for meat. They’re publishing fluff pieces and insisting Harris doesn’t need to do anything.
Again, and I’m not getting my hopes up, but maybe, just maybe, this campaign trick will wake up one or two reporters to get tough with Harris.
One Axios reporter has already brushed it off. Imagine if Trump did this!
Yesterday, Sara Fischer of Axios threw a fit on CNN over “disinformation” and Elon Musk allowing Trump to “say whatever he wants.”
Today, she’s hand-waving away the Kamala Harris campaign editing press headlines in ads to spread disinformation.
Incredible. pic.twitter.com/u69o0RP8dh
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 13, 2024
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Comments
I guess all the money for Biden’s campaign found a use.
cheating
stolen elections
racists
sexists
censoring
bullying
murderersrapistscriminals
all lefty all the time
And… Why are Republicans whining instead of doing the same thing? There are no rules in politics and never have been. I am positve other campaigns have done the same thing.
I am skeptical Trump wants to win more than he wants to whine.
Are you kidding? How much of the media are on her side already?
This dispenses with any pretense at all for anyone willing to look at the shadiness beyond blind partisanship.
boo hoo. other GOP presidents have won with the media against them. Whining is not winning.
Boo hoo yourself commie. This is one step away from state sponsored media propaganda.
Do you understand how it works? Democrats can get away with things Republicans can’t. If the GOP even tried this it would be national headlines.
Does ANYBODY believe, for one single microsecond, that Google would allow this if it were Trump doing it?
Yes, they would. This is exactly how Google makes (some) of their money; sponsored ad results. The better question is why isn’t there anyone in the Trump campaign who thought about doing this too?
Another reason to use DuckDuckGo.
You kind of miss the point.
You can’t make everybody ELSE use DuckDuckGo.
It’s another day ending in the letter “y,” so, naturally, the vile and hypocritical Dhimmi-crats are predictably spreading misinformation and fake news, as is their standard modus operandi.
And, Google’s connivance in and approbation of this transaction, for what is sure to be a policy violation, is probably the least of the the assistance that the company is lending the wretched Harris-Walz ticket.
How do we know Trump has a considerable margin?
Minitrue works overtime.
All those “she’s gonna” headlines should be followed by ads saying “well, she’s half of Biden/Harris; what is she waiting for?” and “why hasn’t she done it before this? Is her campaign more important than American suffering?”
Imagine the Propaganda potential having the entire media on your side. They have it. That they don’t win every election is what’s astounding.
No different than if you search for something on Amazon a line of products come up with “sponsored” right there on them.
The ads clearly say “sponsored”. If you don’t know what that means then your probably stupid enough to vote for Harris anyways.
The reality is there are a LOT of stupid people out there – if there weren’t, companies wouldn’t spend BILLIONS sponsoring search results – and some significant percentage of those very stupid people vote.
Google search revenue increased 14% in their last fiscal period….to an eye-watering $46B.
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-revenue-increases-14-yoy-to-46-billion-440001
Let’s be clear on this. The sponsored ads on, say, Amazon that pop-up when you are searching for paintbrushes may be exactly what you are looking for but they are clearly paying to show up first in the results. Since the majority of people have bought stuff online the number that doesn’t know how this works are very small. Whoever is running those ads is paying for them to be there so take that into consideration
As long as they say “sponsored” or ” paid for by kamalalaladingdong then that’s fine. I’ve long given up hope on the electorate given Obama, Biden, Schumer, Omar, etc
Reading through the comments it’s clear very few people understand how search engines work. They ALL do this, including Duck-Duck-Go. For most search engines, it’s the primary revenue stream that fund their operations.
The Guardian, CNN, USA Today, and NPR told Axios they had no idea the Harris campaign had these ads.
Does anybody believe, for one single nanosecond, that Google, The Associated Press
CBS News, CNN, The Guardian, The Independent UK, NPR, PBS, Time, and USA Today didn’t know exactly the shenanigans that the Harris campaign was pulling when they placed these advertisements?