Politico pounced ... and then they un-pounced. And apparently hoped no one would notice.

Let's start with the report yesterday afternoon, in which Politico's Ben Lefebvre and their headline writer just took Kamala Harris at her word on fracking. At her current word, that is. Donald Trump campaigned on Harris' repeated pledges to oppose fracking, a key part of the Green New Deal agenda she has long championed, and which will undoubtedly prove unpopular in Pennsylvania and other states where hydraulic fracturing has unleashed prodigious amounts of oil and natural gas.

Harris called the accusation "false," and that's the spin Politico put on it with its headline, which amazed CNN's Andy Kaczynski:

This is a bizarre framing — it’s not an accusation or allegation. She said it on record numerous times in 2019. The news is that she just recently changed her position publicly. https://t.co/io86ijdMa3 pic.twitter.com/BUlIcE1mtn

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) July 29, 2024

Later this morning, however, the headline on the article morphed into "Harris campaign pledges she won’t ban fracking". As of 11:30 ET this morning, no editor's note appears explaining the change. But they still carry the "false accusations" claim in the lead:

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign pledged the likely Democratic presidential nominee would not ban fracking, rejecting what it called “false” accusations by Donald Trump that she would prohibit the technology if elected president.

Well ... were those accusations "false" at all? Oddly, while Lefebvre gets in shots at Trump over other "several falsehoods" that he passes along as fact, Lefebvre never actually gets around to qualifying Harris' denials. Instead, he passes those along without commentary on whether Harris actually is telling the truth now. He even allows a campaign spokesperson to assert anonymously that "she will not ban fracking."

And that's pretty strange, since Harris went on record during her first presidential campaign by declaring that there was "no question" that she would ban fracking as president. So did Joe Biden, who went even further to pledge to eliminate "fossil fuel" altogether, as KUSI recalled later, even though Harris denied it in her debate with Mike Pence:

And even if we accept the apparent premise of Politico that this is so 2019, dudes, has Harris actually endorsed fracking since then? Until the last few days, when suddenly her positions matter, did Harris ever say that fracking was a necessary part of America's energy policy? Is she even saying that now?

Or is she just trying to fend off an attack on her record by claiming her position will change now that an election is nigh?

This certainly looks like the latter rather than the former. If this is truly a "false accusation," as Lefebvre and Politico suggest, then show us where Harris has ever supported fracking. If not, then don't pass along self-serving statements from campaign flacks without applying the same critical tone as applied to their opponent in the same piece. And for the love of Edward R. Murrow, don't let the campaign flack hide behind anonymity while doing so. 

This entire piece is an utter failure of journalistic ethics. I'd say shame on Politico, but shame doesn't appear to apply to their work in any substantial way.