CV NEWS FEED // The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is stockpiling ads on Google to create the appearance that straight news reports are actually endorsements of her campaign, multiple sources reported Tuesday.
Axios’ Sara Fischer reported that the Harris-Walz team “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.”
Fischer noted that while Harris’ actions are not unprecedented nor in violation of Google’s policies, her “ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard.”
Per Google, “the Trump campaign isn’t running these types of ads, but this technique has been used by campaigns before,” Fischer’s report continued:
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.
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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.”
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AllSides, a company that monitors media bias of news coverage, made a series of posts to X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday highlighting some examples of these pro-Harris ads.
“The Harris ads masquerade as news articles [with] a clear pro-Harris slant,” AllSides stated on X. “The Harris campaign has changed the actual headlines and preview text to make it appear the news outlet is explicitly supporting her candidacy.”
AllSides elaborated that when clicked, the ads lead to news articles – as opposed to the Harris campaign’s website.
“The Harris campaign spent over $750k on Google ads in August, Google Ads data shows. Many targeted swing states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” AllSides added. “We also tried to find examples of the Trump campaign using similar tactics, but found nothing.”
Political commentator Collin Rugg wrote: “These are the same people who accuse the right of ‘misinformation,’” referring to the Harris campaign.
In a fundraising email addressed to supporters ahead of Elon Musk’s conversation with Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, her campaign wrote “Musk already ruined Twitter by allowing hate speech and disinformation to flood the platform.”
