The same leftists who have denounced Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and others of spreading “disinformation” have been caught spreading “disinformation” themselves.
The Harris presidential campaign, Axios disclosed this week, is rewriting Google news headlines over news stories. The reason: to make it appear as if the leftist mainstream media are backing her campaign.
Why the campaign would rewrite headlines for that reason is unclear given that the media hates Donald Trump and obviously backs Harris.
Once Axios scribe Sara Fischer caught some guff for the revelation, she disowned the scoop as much ado about nothing. Harris, she wrote on X, is doing nothing wrong.
Honey, Get Me Rewrite!
“The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side, Axios has found,” Fischer wrote.
Though the rewrites don’t trespass Google’s policies, the “ads ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard.”
The Trump campaign apparently isn’t involved in the high-tech chicanery.
“The ads say that they are sponsored, but it’s not immediately clear that the text that accompanies real news links is written by the campaigns and not by the media publication itself,” Fischer continued.
The Guardian is checking with Google to find out “more information” about the cyber shenanigans. CNN, NPR, and USA Today, “whose links appeared in Harris for President ads, said they were unaware their brand was being featured this way.”
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.” …
A source familiar with the Harris campaign’s ads team said the campaign buys search ads with news links to give voters searching for information about Vice President Harris more context.
The Harris disinformation squad has rewritten headlines over stories on more than 10 news outlets. Those include PBS, CNN, CBS, Time, The Guardian, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the UK Independent.
Even local radio stations aren’t safe from the Harris campaign’s manipulators.
Though the ads link to real news articles, “the headlines and supporting text have been altered to read as though the articles support the Harris campaign’s objectives,” Fischer revealed:
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.” …
The mainstream media industry is already fighting assertions of bias. These ads, even though they comply with Google’s rules, could leave media outlets further vulnerable to charges of partisanship.
“Some of these news organizations might not want to be positioned as promoting one campaign, and this implies that they have a bias towards that campaign, potentially,” said John Gable, co-founder and CEO of AllSides, a nonpartisan firm that rates media bias.
Another headline from Reuters read this way: “Inflation Down: Under the Biden-Harris Administration, ‘The U.S. is winning the inflation fight.’”
Backtracking?
That evaluation notwithstanding, hate-Trump leftists pushed back against Fischer’s revelations, whereupon she defended the campaign on X, Fox News reported.
“Harris camp doing nothing wrong and Google, which is pretty strict about banning spammy ads, doesn’t see it as a consumer harm,” Fischer wrote on X. “News outlets just collateral damage in this weird ads tactic”
Glenn Greenwald, one of the few (if not the only) honest leftist journalists, noted the obvious.
“I was shocked yesterday when I saw Axios publish an investigation reflecting negatively on Kamala’s campaign,” he wrote on X. “But soon as the reporter, @sarafischer, was attacked for doing it, she immediately denigrated her own scoop, saying it was no big deal and Kamala did nothing wrong.”
Trump Disinformation
But the classic leftist disinformation campaign is hardly a surprise coming from the Harris machine. And it was part and parcel of the Biden-Harris campaign before Democratic Elites forced President Joe Biden to step down.
When X owner Elon Musk interviewed Trump, Team Harris sent an email accusing Musk of trying to control American democracy, as the New York Post reported.
“It’s not enough that Musk has pledged to donate millions of dollars to help reelect Trump,” the email said:
He’s using his purchased platform — one of the largest social media sites in the world — to spread Trump’s unhinged and hateful agenda to millions of users.
In July, the Biden-Harris Combine falsely claimed that Musk would donate $45 million per month to Trump’s campaign.
“Musk has already ruined Twitter by allowing hate speech and disinformation to flood the platform,” the campaign wrote. “Now Musk is using his vast fortune to try to control our democracy.”
Musk endorsed Trump minutes after Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate the former president on July 13. That was a little more than a week before Biden was forced to quit the race.
He and Trump have both denied that the Tesla tycoon vowed to give $45 million a month.
