Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bill Hemmer on Wednesday criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign over its use of edited headlines from news outlets in ads appearing with Google search results.
The Harris campaign began using the altered headlines from outlets like USA Today, NPR and CNN that appear as sponsored ads in Google search results earlier in August, Axios reported. MacCallum called the technique used by the Harris campaign “very subtle,” saying it could influence people looking for information on candidates’ positions. (RELATED: ‘She Has A Good Teacher’: Leo Terrell Says Kamala Harris Learned To Plagiarize From Joe Biden)
“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,” Hemmer said. “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.”
Co-host Dana Perino, a former White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, agreed with Hemmer’s assessment before MacCallum responded.
WATCH:
That’s Cheating’: Fox News Hosts React To Kamala Campaign’s ‘Manipulative’ Google Search Tactic pic.twitter.com/S4gv7wzi8y
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 14, 2024
“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,” MacCallum said. “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,” MacCallum continued. “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?”
Harris is up by 1.1% in a national head-to-head matchup with former President Donald Trump, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls from July 27 to Aug. 11, with the gap decreasing to 0.8% when Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein and independent presidential candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are included in surveys. (RELATED: ‘I Thought You Guys Might Get Lonely’: JD Vance Strides Over To Bored Reporters Waiting For Harris On Tarmac)
“This is very subtle, very manipulative and in a moment when you also have a stepped-up threat from Iran, trying to get their bots into all this and influence people in ways that are subtle and difficult to figure out, this is something that I think requires a lot of diligence on the part of people who are looking for this information,” MacCallum said.
“Most of these news organizations have no idea that their articles were being used in this way and manipulated. Just as an example, if we do an interview and we take a sound bite, we have sat with someone, you can’t pick out certain parts and move it to other places to misconstrue the meaning, or to put in meaning that wasn’t something that person said,” MacCallum added. “You have to — and the Musk-Trump interview is a perfect example. It was straight on through. Anyone who wants to listen, you listen. But this is manipulative, to be sure.”
The Harris campaign and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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