The Tennessee Republican Party learned from the masters of fake news - Donald Trump himself and Russians who used real-looking news banners and headlines to create falsified manipulations of websites that Google searches would find and Facebook would pass along.
Purpose? To crank up anger and election enthusiasm among the GOP base for the Tennessee Senate race.
The Tennessee Republican Party paid for multiple ads on Google that anonymously targeted Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen with faked and misleading allegations disguised to look like newspaper stories.
The Nashville Tennessean discovered the GOP's anti-Bredesen ads when searching for news about former Gov. Bredesen, who is running for the U.S. Senate against former Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. At least two of the faked ads used the Tennessean to create the lies.
"Trump Voters Idiots According | To Top Bredesen Spokesman," one headline read under a Tennessean.com attribution line. "Phil Bredesen spokesman calls Trump voters "idiots" and tweets insults Trump. [sic]."
The ad, which wasn't at first labeled an ad, then opened not to a Tennessean article about Bredesen or a Bredesen spokesman, but rather to a piece about Mark Brown, a Democratic Party operative who called Trump supporters "idiots" on social media. Brown also repeated former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling Trump a "---- moron" in another tweet. Brown doesn't work for the Bredesen campaign, much less serve as a spokesperson for the campaign.
But that's just the half of it. Initially, there was no disclaimer of any kind on the ad to indicate it was an ad. Readers were misled to believe it was a real story about Bredesen, when it clearly was not.
When the Tennessean contacted Google to complain and ask what was going on, Google acknowledged that it was an ad that had gone unchecked by Google's new ad algorithm intended to catch such fake stories and label them with a "paid for by" disclaimer that is supposed to appear on political advertisements.
Eventually, Google added a disclaimer "Ad" box, noting that ad and the other anti-Bredesen ads were "paid for by the Tennessee Republican Party Federal Election Account."
Like the "idiots" ad, the other ads also altered article headlines and URLs in the search results in a way that is misleading.
Bredesen and Blackburn are in a closely contested race to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker in the Nov. 6 general election.
Google opted not to explain to The Tennessean why the ads were missed by the internet giant's algorithm system, but did acknowledge after further review that the ads are covered by the company's new policy for political ads adopted on May 31. That policy requires a "paid for by" disclosure.
Aside from the supposed check of an algorithm, however, Google indicated that adding a disclaimer on ads is a decision for Google - not the entity paying for the advertisement.
But wouldn't you expect more from a political party? Shouldn't you expect more from the Tennessee Republican Party?
Manipulating the work of a copyrighted newspaper to create a faked story would at the least seem to be theft or a defamation of the paper's character, with or without a deliberately placed "ad" disclaimer by the GOP. If the Tennessean - or any newspaper - implied that Bredesen or other candidates called Trump voters idiots when the paper knew they did not, it would be libel. What keeps this from being libel by the GOP or Google?
A Bredesen spokeswoman slammed back at the Tennessee Republican Party.
"It may not be the Washington way, but the truth still matters in Tennessee," Laura Zapata told the Tennessean, adding that "now that Congressman Blackburn's dishonest backers have been unmasked, voters will be reminded once again why the swamp reeks."
The GOP, however, rather than accept responsibility, took another page from the Trump playbook. It accused Google of being biased.
Try not to laugh - it's true.
Gillum Ferguson, spokesman for the Tennessee Republican Party that is led by chairman Scott Golden, said the party's policy is to not to discuss its digital strategy. Then Ferguson charged that Google "selectively moved the goalposts on Republicans" with its May 31 policy - more than two months before either Bredesen or Blackburn became their respective party's official nominee.
In other words, the GOP didn't mind being dishonest, only that it got caught being dishonest.
Like president, like party.
Sad.