FARGO, ND (TND) — A North Dakota radio station is considering legal action against Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team for allegedly editing the headlines and descriptions of its online advertisements.
Steve Hallstrom, president and managing partner of WDAY Radio, told The National Desk (TND) that the Harris campaign lied to internet users about WDAY’s articles. Axios found on Tuesday that the campaign changed the station’s headline in a Google ad to read: “Harris chooses Tim Walz – 215,000 MN families win.”
WDAY’s URL appears above the line. According to Hallstrom, no article on the station’s website contains the allegedly edited headline.
“We’re moving very quickly… We’re reaching out to people who we think can give us good advice on this and trying to figure out what our options are,” Hallstrom said.
We didn’t write anything like that. We didn’t have any news reports suggesting anything like that,” Hallstrom added.
The only article on WDAY’s website dealing with Harris’s choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has the headline “Walz selected as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate for 2024 election,” according to a review of the website.
“They lied to everyone who saw the ad and misled them into believing there was a news organization with a 100-year history in our community doing good, solid journalism that not only took sides in a political debate but also openly cheered for the candidate in their headlines and in their article,” Hallstrom said. “That is false.”
He said WDAY reached out to Harris’ campaign and demanded that they stop using the ad but received no response.
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According to Axios, the campaign has also edited other media outlets’ headlines. One from Reuters reportedly reads “Inflation is down” and has a description that includes the sentence: “Under the Biden-Harris administration, ‘the U.S. is winning the battle against inflation.'”
A supposedly redacted Associated Press headline reads: “Vice President Harris’ economic vision – lower costs and higher wages,” followed by the description: “A future where every person has a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead. We will not go back to the failed trickle-down policies that hurt working families.”
A source familiar with the Harris campaign’s ad team told Axios that the campaign is buying ads with news links to provide more context to voters looking for information about Harris.
I don’t care what they were up to or what they were trying to accomplish. I only care about what happened to us,” Hallstrom said. “We have reporters in our newsroom who have been working in this market for decades and have earned their credibility as objective and unbiased reporters.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to TND’s request for comment.
Have questions, concerns or tips? Send them to Ray at [email protected].
