The Kamala Harris campaign altered news headlines to make them appear more favorable. If this doesn’t meet the definition of misinformation, nothing does. But the democracy defenders in our corporate media hardly seem to care.
Axios broke the story earlier Tuesday: the Harris campaign sneakily sponsored Google search ads that led to news stories from nearly every major news outlet in the country. Except they changed the headlines and sub-headers to make the stories appear as ringing endorsements.
For example, one ad linked to an article from The Guardian using the campaign’s own headline, “VP Harris Fights Abortion Bans – Harris Defends Repro Freedom.” It then included a sub-header that reads, “VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.”
Hours later, the Axios reporter who broke the story denigrated her own scoop on Twitter, quickly clarifying that the Harris campaign did “nothing wrong.”
Harris camp doing nothing wrong and Google, which is pretty strict about banning spammy ads, doesn’t see it as a consumer harm. News outlets just collateral damage in this weird ads tactic https://t.co/xEAiW3JWNC
— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) August 13, 2024
Whew, that’s a relief.
Now that the campaign got off the hook, all the outlets that had their integrity dragged through the mud get to safely avoid or downplay the story. Of course they’re in the tank for Harris. They’d just rather the campaign not make it so obvious.
The campaign used the same trick with articles from The Independent UK, NPR, The Associated Press (AP), USA Today, PBS, CNN, CBS News, Reuters and Time. But Axios notes this is just the tip of the iceberg; other outlets were used as well.
Of those, however, CBS, NPR, Time and PBS seem to have ignored the story entirely. NBC and ABC seem to have ignored the story as well.
When contacted by the Daily Caller, spokesmen for Reuters and AP commented simply that they were not aware of what the campaign did. AP said they would not “allow these to run on our website,” while Reuters said it was “looking into the matter.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Harris Campaign, Google Could Face Lawsuit After Fake News Headline Scheme)
To its credit, The Independent did denounce the practice used by the campaign. “It is entirely wrong for anyone to put fake headlines under The Independent brand. We object fiercely and believe it is undermining of what politics and journalism should be about,” a spokesman said.
However, the outlet’s coverage led with the idea that the campaign “provoked backlash.” You see, the main story isn’t what the campaign did; it’s those pesky pouncing Republicans.
The Guardian offered an even mushier response. “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 spokesman for the outlet said.
USA Today also cover the story but downplayed it as “real news content” that simply offered “customized headlines and descriptions.” Don’t worry, the “experts” at Google say it’s “common.”
CNN does not seem to have covered the story in print, but the outlet did discuss it on air. Former White House Communications Director turned CNN commentator Kate Bedingfield waffled through a batty defense of the campaign, arguing there was “nothing about it that … is in any way unethical.”
Axios caught the Harris campaign buying Google ads with rewritten media headlines. Ya know, fake news.
CNN’s Kate Bedingfield looks nutty trying to defend this. Before her CNN gig, Bedingfield was Biden’s White House Comms Director and his deputy campaign manager for the 2020… pic.twitter.com/jzpSeGWH6B
— Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) August 15, 2024
The media, if they even covered it at all, will move on in a matter of hours. This will be made into a non-story because of the person — and party — involved. But we all know what would happen if the Trump campaign got caught doing this same thing: This would be front page news for every outlet in the country.
Breathless coverage would provide incremental updates to the story for days on end. Journalists would trot out experts to comment on this “dangerous spread of misinformation,” how it’s an “existential threat” and how companies and lawmakers must “do more” to silence “harmful speech” and “safeguard our democracy.”
But it was the Harris campaign, so none of this will come to pass. It just goes to show that these journalists no longer care about their journalistic integrity any longer. That’s because they’re not really even journalists — they’re political activists. And they’re perfectly happy to fall on their swords as long as it furthers their agenda.
