Left wing groups run misleading ads against Texas Republicans

Houston Chronicle:
Some political groups on the left are borrowing a tactic from disinformation campaigns, placing ads on Facebook that pretend to be impartial information or unbiased news sources, when in fact the ads spread misleading facts about candidates.
One ad, taken out by a group called "The Voter Awareness Project," reopens old wounds between President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, implying that Trump is at odds with Cruz even as the president stumped for the senator last week near the end of Cruz's surprisingly close re-election bid against Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

"Trump's trying to drain the swamp of do-nothing politicians. Trump says Lyin' Ted Cruz has accomplished nothing for Texas, and he's right," the ad reads, referring to a 2016 tweet from when Trump was a candidate.

But Trump and Cruz have since buried the hatchet. Trump has been endorsing Cruz for re-election since February. He recently said, "He's not Lyin' Ted anymore. He's Beautiful Ted. I call him Texas Ted," and he held a rally for Cruz last week in Houston.

The name of the Oakland, Calif.-based group running the ads sounds nonpartisan — The Voter Awareness Project — but the super PAC behind the ads is not. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the super PAC's treasurer is Markos Moulitsas, the well-known liberal blogger behind Daily Kos.

Moulitsas told The Texas Tribune and ProPublica that the super PAC was his "side project" and that the goal behind the ads was "reminding people how Trump feels about many of the Republicans running this year."
...

"This ad employs a form of information disorder we frequently refer to as 'false context,'" said Cameron Hickey, who researches misinformation at the Information Disorder Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center. (Hickey and the Shorenstein Center are partners with ProPublica in the Electionland project.) "By employing Trump's Lyin' Ted epithet from the 2016 campaign, without the relevant context that Trump has recently supported and campaigned for Cruz, this ad has the potential to mislead Trump supporters into believing that Trump doesn't support the candidate today, which he does."
...

Other groups have pages that masquerade as news outlets: "Breaking News Texas" criticizes Republican congressman John Culberson of Houston in a mock newscast saying he "FAILED to prepare Texas for Hurricane Harvey." A nearby disclaimer saying the ad was "paid for by EDF Action" makes it a bit clearer that Breaking News Texas is actually the Environmental Defense Action Fund. Culberson's re-election bid against Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher has emerged as one of the most expensive races in Texas this year.
...
There is more.

The left appears to be copying some of the techniques allegedly used by the Russians in 2016.  I think Texas Republicans are smarter than these guys give them credit for.

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