The Kamala Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and using them as campaign ads. The ads mimic real news results but in a way that flatters Harris or denigrates the Trump campaign. It is very misleading if not…misinformation, right?
Axios reports that “According to Google’s ad transparency center, the Trump campaign isn’t running these types of ads, but this technique has been used by campaigns before.”
Google says that this does not violate their policy so they will allow it because the ads do say that they are sponsored. The ads link to real news stories from the outlets they purport to be from but when you click them, you see the non-altered headline. Axios asked spokespeople from the outlets if they knew about this and they said that they didn’t.
What do you think? Is this deceptive or fair game? I agree with Reason’s assessment: “I honestly fail to see the reason for editing these ads to make it look like these news outlets are on Harris’ side—the original headlines are flattering enough.”
