WDAY Radio, a local news station in Fargo, North Dakota, is considering legal action after the Kamala Harris campaign fraudulently edited a WDAY headline to make it appear the station was endorsing Harris in an ad campaign, the station's president told the Daily Caller.
The Harris campaign has edited news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads to make it appear as if major news organizations are explicitly endorsing Harris. Shocking Axios report This was revealed on Tuesday.
WDAY was the only family-owned outlet named in the report — other outlets whose content was manipulated by Harris' team include Reuters, The Associated Press, NPR, CNN, The Guardian and The Independent.
The Harris campaign has edited the headlines and descriptions of the search ads to make it appear as if major media outlets are endorsing her.
—Google believes its sponsorship disclosures are sufficient to avoid misleading voters, but the media may think differently.https://t.co/dU0KFhbeuy— Sarah Fisher (@sarafischer) August 13, 2024
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, the WDAY president slammed Google and the Harris campaign for the deception.
““We feel violated and violated by what has taken place here,” Steve Hallstrom, president and managing partner of Flagg Family Media, which owns WDAY Radio, told The Daily Caller.
“There's a political campaign that's exploited our news brand and URL to lie to people about a headline we wrote,” Hallstrom said. “They lied to everyone who saw that ad. It's misleading, it's dishonest, and it's damaging as a company, as our news brand. So, starting today, we're starting to make some decisions here. We're considering all our options, including legal action.”
The Harris campaign has three variations advertisement It linked to WDAY's website. According to the Google Ads Transparency Center, the ads ran with headlines like “Harris Picks Tim Waltz – 215,000 Minnesota Households Win,” “Get to Know Tim Waltz for VP – Harris Picks Tim Waltz” and “Harris Picks Tim Waltz – Tim Waltz Picked for VP.”
The ads linked to actual articles by the news organizations in question, but the articles did not include those headlines, nor did they include any of the text below them.
Harris' campaign ad features a manipulated headline from WDAY Radio. Screenshot/Google Ads Transparency Center
“We have never written anything even close to what is alleged here,” Hallstrom said. “They took two unrelated articles that were on our website, mixed them together and changed some words to make it appear as if our news organization endorsed the election of Mr. Walz.”
Hallstrom shared with The Daily Caller two news articles that appear to have been manipulated by the campaign. The headlines for those articles read:Walz picks Kamala Harris as running mate for vice president in 2024” and “Minnesota Child Tax Credit benefits 215,000 Minnesota families.”
The company told Axios that the ads did not violate Google policies, but that a “glitch” caused some of the ads to appear without disclosing their sponsorship. A Google spokesperson said:.
“I'“I've heard the excuse that this meets Google Ads' approval standards, but I don't care,” Hallstrom said. “When you look at this ad, you know it's an ad, and any reasonable person would look at it and say, 'Oh, the campaign found an article or a headline on a website that suits them. Who wouldn't use that? Who wouldn't use that?' But that's not what happened here,” he continued.
Other media outlets reported no knowledge of the seemingly dishonest advertising campaign.
“The Associated Press is not aware of these practices and has not authorized them to appear on our website,” an AP spokesman told The Daily Caller.
““We were not aware that Reuters appeared in these ads and are currently investigating the matter,” Reuters told the Caller.
“It is completely wrong to put out fake headlines. '“This is an attack on The Independent's brand,” a spokesman for the publication told the Caller. “We strongly object to this. It undermines what politics and journalism should be. Mixing a false headline into a campaign trying to persuade people to vote is misleading and must be widely condemned. We will be calling for its removal.”
Hallstrom questioned why the Harris campaign believed the ad was a good idea in the first place.
“Some things are right, some are wrong, but this is clearly wrong. This is obviously misleading, obviously deceptive, obviously dishonest, obviously done recklessly with no thought given to what is really going on here; and “I don't know who in the Harris campaign decided this was a good strategy, but I find it hard to believe that the organization, that campaign as a whole, from top to bottom, feels that this is a savvy, principled approach to promoting a candidate,” he said.
The scandal comes at a time when Harris is facing intense scrutiny for her lack of meaningful engagement with the press. (RELATED: Kamala Harris doesn't give interviews in first week of presidential campaign)
More than three weeks have passed since Harris became the Democratic front-runner, but she has yet to give an interview to reporters. Her lack of response to interview requests prompted The Washington Post editorial board to question They want to ask her.
The Washington Post editorial board released a list of questions they would like to ask Vice President Harris.
The vice presidential candidate has not held a press conference or interview since launching his campaign three weeks ago. https://t.co/nG6gQAZ7pA pic.twitter.com/5XmwUDrgf8
— Reagan Reese (@reaganreese_) August 12, 2024
“W“We don't want to let this go. We want to fight on this,” Hallstrom concluded.
The Daily Caller reached out to representatives for Google and the Harris campaign but did not receive a response as of press time.
