Harris Campaign Works with Google to Edit News Headlines in Online Ads

Mainstream media outlets have been running cover for Democrats for years, but now a top Democrat is faking endorsements from prolific newspapers and networks. According to multiple reports, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign has been editing Google ads to give the impression that major media outlets are endorsing or supporting her policies and presidential campaign. The Harris campaign has attached its ads to news sources which appear in Google searches and edited the attached text to make it appear as though the targeted news sources are supporting the Harris campaign, although once the links are clicked, they redirect internet users to the original news articles.

Axios reported that “the ads mimic real news results from [Google] Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard.” It further noted, “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.”

Media bias watchdog group AllSides reported, “The Harris ads masquerade as news articles [with] a clear pro-Harris slant. The Harris campaign has changed the actual headlines and preview text to make it appear the news outlet is explicitly supporting her candidacy.” AllSides added, “Beguiling voters with fake endorsements from major news sources seems to be a new political campaign tactic. Keep an eye out for the ‘Sponsored’ label on Google search results to avoid being misled.”

Axios found that nearly a dozen news organizations have been co-opted for the Harris campaign via Google ads, including major outlets like the Associated Press, USA Today, The Guardian, The Independent, Time Magazine, NPR, PBS, CNN, CBS News, and others. A spokesman for The Guardian said, “While we understand why an organization might wish to align itself with the Guardian's trusted brand, we need to ensure it is being used appropriately and with our permission. We’ll be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice.” Other targeted news organizations have responded similarly, saying that they were unaware that their news articles, logos, and brands were being used by the Harris campaign in that way.

The Harris campaign is reportedly not breaking Google’s rules and such ploys have been used in political advertising in the past, but both Axios and media bias watchdog AllSides noted that former President Donald Trump’s campaign is not running similar ads. Harris, on the other hand, has spent at least $750,000 on Google ads just in the month of August, mostly targeting swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona.

Although Google says that its rules are not being broken by the Harris campaign, the tech giant has a long history of election interference. A recent report revealed that Google has “interfered” in elections over 40 times since 2008. Google worked closely with then-Senator Barack Obama to assist his presidential campaign and, later, his reelection. In 2016, Google rigged its programs to hide search results related to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s crimes. For example, autocomplete would correct searches for “Hillary Clinton indictment” to “Hillary Clinton Indiana,” and searches for “Hillary Clinton crime” to “Hillary Clinton crime reform.” Google also earned a reputation for overrepresenting news outlets ranked by independent watchdog agencies as left-wing or left-leaning, ensuring that the majority of search results came from left-wing sources, while conservative news sources became increasingly rare.

In 2020, multiple Google executives admitted that the tech giant was actively attempting to “prevent” Trump’s reelection. Google executives hand-picked news results to promote in searches, often suppressing or hiding factually accurate reports that did not align with the corporation’s editorial designs. Websites like the Daily Caller, The Christian Post, and Catholic News Agency were blocked from appearing in search results on Google apps, while websites like Breitbart News, Human Events, The Federalist, and Gateway Pundit were blocked from Google search results regardless of the app or platform used to access Google. The corporation also marked campaign ads and emails from Republican candidates as spam, reportedly blocking over 22 million emails from the Republican National Committee.

Over the past four years, Google has also suppressed the campaign websites of Republican candidates, increased the percentage of search results that come from news or opinion sources with a left-wing bias, and trained its artificial intelligence programs to disparage Republican candidates for office (including Trump) and promote Democrats. More recently, Google drew criticism for seemingly blocking news of the assassination attempt against Trump from appearing in autocomplete in searches. It wasn’t even weeks after the former President had been shot in the head that Google’s autocomplete returned any results for “Trump assassination attempt.”