But you knew that, didn’t you?

Besides, they are only cheating to protect democracy, and the ends justify any means necessary. Right?

Those strategically labelled news clips above are part of a Harris campaign scheme outed by Axios, which has its moments of real journalism. It revealed that the Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions in Google Search ads making it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, The Independent UK, NPR, Associated Press, USA Today, PBS, CNN, Time and others,including local outlets like North Dakota radio station WDAY Radio are even more openly pro-Harris than they are. The ads include links to articles from the news outlets, but the headlines and supporting text have been altered to read as though the articles support the Harris and the Democrats overtly. An ad that ran alongside an article from The Guardian, for example, links to “VP Harris Fights Abortion Bans – Harris Defends Repro Freedom” and but adds supporting text underneath the headline that reads, “VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.”

Says Axios, “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.”

The Trump campaign isn’t running these types of ads, maybe because they haven’t thought of it. But cheating is a Democratic Party specialty. The ads do say that they are sponsored, but casual readers would not realize that the text accompanying the news links was written by the campaign and not by publication being “quoted.”

The Guardian, for one, is annoyed. “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,” a Guardian spokesperson said. CNN, USA Today and NPR all told Axios that they did not know they were being used this way. Google says that because ads on Search are prominently labeled as “Sponsored,” they’re “easily distinguishable from Search results.” Sure.

I wonder if Google’s position would be the same if it was the Trump campaign engaging in the practice.

The Harris campaign told Axios that it buys search ads with news links to give voters searching for information about her “more context,” and emphasizes that its practice complies with all of Google’s rules. This is what lawyers are good at: finding ways to be unethical that don’t “technically” violate rules and laws.