Fake News? Oakland Election Ads Raise Concerns Over Misleading Headlines

The ads may have markers indicating that a campaign paid for them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not misleading, said Subramaniam Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics.

A Google user seeing the ad, he said, “may or may not notice that the headline on the KQED story and the framing and the thrust of the story and the findings in the story and the scope of the story are actually different from the conclusion in the campaign headline.”

“Misrepresentation is kind of the name of the game,” Vincent said. “Politicians are engaged in making claims against their opponents because their speech is protected.”

Subbu Vincent, director, journalism and media ethics, quoted by KQED.