(Daily Caller) WDAY Radio, a local news outlet in Fargo, North Dakota, is considering legal action after the Kamala Harris campaign deceptively edited WDAY headlines to make it look like they supported her in an ad campaign, its president told the Daily Caller.
The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads to make it appear as if major news organizations explicitly support her, a bombshell Axios report revealed Tuesday.
WDAY was the only family-owned outlet listed in the report. Other outlets who had their content manipulated by Harris’ team included Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, CNN, The Guardian, The Independent and more.
Harris campaign has been editing news headlines & descriptions in search ads that make it appear as if major outlets support her
—Google believes its sponsored disclosures are enough to keep voters from being misled, but media outlets may feel differentlyhttps://t.co/dU0KFhbeuy— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) August 13, 2024
WDAY’s President blasted Google and the Harris campaign for the deception in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller.
“We feel insulted and violated by what was done here,” Steve Hallstrom, the President and Managing Partner of Flag Family Media, which owns WDAY Radio, told the Daily Caller.
“You have a political campaign that used our news brand and our URL to effectively lie to people about the headline we wrote,” Hallstrom said. “They lied to every single person that saw that ad. It’s misleading, it’s dishonest, and it hurts us as the company, our news brand. So as of today, we’re starting to make some calls here. We are considering all of our options here, including legal action.”
The Harris campaign used three variations of an advertisement which linked to WDAY’s website. The ads ran with the headlines “Harris Picks Tim Walz – 215,000 MN Families Win,” “Learn About VP Pick Tim Walz – Harris Picks Tim Walz,” and “Harris Picks Tim Walz – Tim Walz Tapped For VP,” according to the Google Ads Transparency Center.
