Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is coming under criticism for sponsored posts on Google that link to current news content from a number of publishers.
That’s not a problem in and of itself, of course. The problem is that the posts contain customized headlines with glowing copy and lofty descriptions created by the campaign, not the news organizations whose names are used in the ads. Experts say this practice is widespread, but some outlets – including news and talk outlets – have chosen to WDAY, North Dakota’s oldest radio station – shout foul.
“We feel insulted and hurt by what happened here,” said Steve Hallstrom, president and managing partner of Fieldstone Consulting Group and operator of WDAY radio. “A political campaign used our news brand and our URL to lie to people about the headline we wrote. We never wrote anything even close to what is being claimed here. They took two unrelated stories we had on our website, mashed them together and then rewrote a few words to make it look like our news organization was cheering the selection of a vice presidential nominee.”
“We are not a perfect company, but we have stressed from day one that we will do everything we can to avoid bias and opinion in our reporting. And we certainly would not endorse a political campaign’s choice of vice president. And that goes for any candidate from any party.”
WDAY, North Dakota’s oldest radio station (it first started in 1922), serves the Fargo, ND/Moorhead, MN area. Hallstrom says the manipulated Google ads are damaging the venerable station’s reputation. And he’s unimpressed by those who defend such ads as par for the course.
“I’ve heard the excuses that this meets Google ad criteria and I don’t care,” he said. “If you see this ad, you may know it’s an ad, but any reasonable person would believe the campaign was using a headline they found on our website. The problem is, we didn’t write that headline or that story. They lied to every single person who saw that ad.”
A report from Axios Chronicles the Harris campaign’s use of sponsored ads, including one ad with a link to NPR’s website that reads “Harris will cut health care costs.” Another ad with a link to an Associated Press article reads, “Vice President Harris’ economic vision – lower costs and higher wages.”
Google’s Ad Transparency Center shows that other publishers also appear in the Harris ads, including Reuters, Time, CNN, AP, The Independent, The Guardian and USA TODAY.
USA TODAY says this type of sponsored ads has faced heavy criticism in the past. In 2017, Facebook stopped allowing ads with altered headlines, calling it “a channel that has been abused to publish false news.”
