Tipsheet

Here We Go Again: Is Axios for Real With This Headline on Kamala Harris?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  August 21, 2024 6:45 PM

Last month, not long after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the mainstream media engaged in trying to change Harris' record in real-time. Axios has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to media outlets claiming that Harris was not actually the border czar, when she had in fact been bestowed such a title in March 2021. The outlet is at it again, this time when it comes to Harris' price controls proposal that her campaign announced last week. 

A post from Tuesday morning shared an article about the subject. As of Wednesday evening, the headline currently reads "How price gouging bans really work." It had previously taken on a much different tone though, with "Don’t call it price controls: How price gouging bans really work."

Unlike the article on Harris' title as the border czar, however, this article, by Emily Peck, does not presently contain an edit about the change. 

The actual piece reads like some kind of Harris-Walz campaign propaganda, shaming those who would dare to call out Harris' plans as communist and speaking about so-called advantages:

One of Kamala Harris' most controversial policy proposals is a ban on grocery price gouging — critics are conflating the idea with Soviet-style price controls, and calling the plan "Kamunism."

Why it matters: If banning price gouging is communist, then the U.S. went Marxist long ago. Most of us live in states that already have bans in place.

...

One advantage of a national ban is that the federal government would have more power to go after big global corporations that are hard to pursue at the state level.

...

The bottom line: Price gouging is not the same thing as "price controls," where a government sets prices for certain goods (the U.S. dabbles there just a smidge; see the new insulin price cap).

  • These measures are oft-hated by economists, but they've been around for a long time. Still, most Americans intuitively understand the rationale behind them, and Harris is trying to appeal to voters — not academics or newspaper columnists.

It's also worth highlighting, though, that even such a piece acknowledges the vice president has been purposefully vague with her plans. 

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The post has been thoroughly ratioed, with close to 1,500 replies full of mockery as well as hundreds of quoted reposts. 

There's also presently a Community Note highlighting how Peck used the term "price controls" when writing about a UK proposal last year. The outlet also used the term in an article from last 2022 by Matt Phillips. That headline even still references "price controls," and the article was in reference to a plan from the G7 about limiting how much Russia could profit off of oil. 

Doug P for our sister site of Twitchy highlighted some of the best examples, also reminding readers of how Axios came under fire about Harris being the border czar. 

In addition to the ratio, many have also shared screenshots to mock the piece, including Elon Musk. 

When it comes to price controls, other mainstream media outlets like The Washington Post and CNN have called Harris out for such a communist-level kind of proposal at least, putting Axios really outside of the mainstream here, in addition to hypocrites caught red-handed. 

One of those users mocking the Axios post, Grabien's Tom Elliott, aptly referred to Peck's piece as "pro-DNC disinformation." 

The outlet actually engaged in that last Friday, ahead of the DNC, putting out such a puff piece on Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) joining TikTok, that users pointed out it sounded like something written up by a campaign staffer.