The reporter who broke the story that Kamala Harris’ campaign was manipulating headlines and descriptions of real news articles to run Google ads supporting Harris believes the vice president’s team “has done nothing wrong.”
Axios reported on Tuesday that the Harris campaign had published sponsored articles that edited headlines from multiple news outlets, including CNN, NPR, Reuters, the Associated Press, CBS News, The Guardian and Time, to endorse Harris and link to actual articles that were not actually written by the news organizations, without the permission of the news organizations.
“This is common practice in the commercial advertising world and does not violate Google policies, but it catches news organizations off guard because the ads so closely mimic real news results available through search.” Axios reporter Sarah Fischer wrote:.
Fischer’s story garnered a lot of attention, and her initial post on X promoting it was met with a flood of negative reactions from liberals. She later clarified on X that the Harris campaign had done nothing wrong, drawing criticism from conservatives.
The Harris campaign manipulated news headlines and injected pro-Kamala bias into Google ads.
“The Harris campaign has done nothing wrong, and Google, which has very strict rules against spam ads, does not see this as a harm to consumers. News organizations are simply suffering collateral damage from this bizarre advertising tactic,” Fisher wrote.
The Harris campaign reportedly purchased Google ads that featured manipulated news articles in the headlines and descriptions that supported Kamala. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Many conservatives and journalism experts criticized Fischer’s comments, saying he was being pressured by liberals to get his own scoops. Fischer said he was simply meaning the Harris campaign was not violating the tech giants’ guidelines.
“I mean it didn’t violate any Google rules,” she told Fox News Digital when reached for comment, adding that she had not received pressure from the Harris campaign to explain the matter.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald, a frequent critic of the mainstream media, wrote on X: “I was shocked to see Axios publish an investigative piece yesterday that was negative on Kamala’s campaign. But I’m not surprised the reporter Sarah FisherWhen attacked for it, she quickly denied her scoop, saying it was no big deal and that Kamala had done nothing wrong.”
According to Fisher’s report, one of the ads that linked to The Guardian had the headline “VP Harris Opposes Abortion Ban, Harris Defends Reproductive Freedom” and the caption “Vice President Harris is a champion of reproductive freedom and will block President Trump’s abortion ban.”
Another NPR article was headlined “Harris will lower the cost of health care” and captioned, “Kamala Harris will lower the cost of quality, affordable health care.”
The Reuters article simply states that “inflation is falling” and explains that “under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States is winning the war on inflation.”
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Google said the Harris campaign did not violate its rules. (Photographer: Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Several news organizations acknowledged to Fox News Digital that they were unaware their stories were being used in this way.
A Guardian spokesperson told Axios: “We understand that some organisations want to associate themselves with The Guardian’s trusted brand, but we need to ensure it is used appropriately and with permission. We will be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice.”
Axios also cited Google’s Ad Transparency Center, noting that “while the Trump campaign is not running these types of ads, the tactic has been used by political campaigns before.”
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The practice does not violate Google’s advertising policies, and the company said the “sponsored” labels make it “easily distinguishable from search results,” according to Axios.
parable The Left New Republic But he said he was surprised by the Harris campaign’s tactics, writing, “This approach could undermine trust in the news and may ultimately prove to be a ploy without any real merit.”
Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
