A radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, is one of the first known media outlets in the country to consider filing a lawsuit against the Harris presidential campaign for editing a headline attributed to the outlet in a Google ad.
WDAY Radio, operated by Flag Family Media, called the ad, paid for by the Harris campaign, "misleading" and "dishonest." The manipulated headline read, "Harris Picks Tim Walz — 215,000 MN Families Win."
"We feel insulted and violated by what was done here," Flag Family Media President Steve Hallstrom told WZFG The Flag on Wednesday. "A political campaign used our news brand and our URL to lie to people about the headline we wrote."
Hallstrom added, "We didn't write that headline. We didn't write anything close to it. We didn't write a news story about that," he said. "They lied to every single person that saw that ad. It's misleading, it's dishonest, and it really hurts our news brand."
Axios on Tuesday reported on the practice used by the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google Search ads that make it seem as if publishers are on her side in the presidential race.
The practice does not violate Google's policies. However, the Trump presidential campaign does not engage in the practice. Former President Donald Trump accused Harris and Google of "creating fake news."
Axios reported finding almost a dozen news companies have been used in these types of ads from the Harris campaign since Aug. 3.
Hallstrom refuses to be one of them. The executive told WZFG that he reached out to the Harris campaign on Wednesday, demanding they terminate the ad linked to WDAY.
"And we are considering all our options here, including legal action," he said. "What's been done here is wrong. This isn't a gray-area matter."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.