Reporter who broke story says Harris campaign did 'nothing wrong' by manipulating headlines in Google ads

The reporter who scooped that the Kamala Harris campaign is running Google ads featuring pro-Harris spin in manipulated headlines and descriptions of actual news stories feels the vice president’s camp did “nothing wrong.”

Axios reported Tuesday that the Harris campaign has put out sponsored posts with edited headlines from several news organizations, including CNN, NPR, Reuters, the Associated Press, CBS News, The Guardian and TIME. The manipulated headlines feature pro-Harris spin that wasn’t actually written by the outlets but links to actual articles, without the outlets’ knowledge.

“It’s a common practice in the commercial advertising world that doesn’t violate Google’s policies, but the ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard,” Axios reporter Sara Fischer wrote.

Fischer’s story drew considerable attention, and she received a flood of negative liberal responses to her initial X post promoting the piece. She then…