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The campaign of Marietta Republican Rep. Bill Johnson has been accused of improperly altering an Akron Beacon Journal front page

(Sabrina Eaton, The Plain Dealer)

WASHINGTON, D. C. - Most politicians only dream of writing their own newspaper headlines.

The Akron Beacon Journal alleges that Marietta GOP Rep. Bill Johnson did exactly that by altering one of its newspapers in a re-election ad the congressman ran on YouTube, on his campaign website and on television.

An article on the newspaper's website says the Beacon Journal demanded that the campaign immediately stop using a fake newspaper page it created by taking the Beacon Journal's Memorial Day front page and replacing the headlines with "fictitious headlines attacking his opponent and her party."

The newspaper reported the disputed ad was still on the congressman's website on Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, it was gone.

"The original story at the top of the page was on a local soldier killed in Afghanistan," the newspaper said. "While the story remained in place, the headline was changed to 'Democrats do it too.' A picture of a family resting at the Western Reserve National Cemetery was replaced with a photo of Barack Obama. A picture of a man remembering a friend killed in Vietnam and the headline in that story were replaced with a photo and headline attacking Johnson's opponent."

Former Democratic state representative Jennifer Garrison of Marietta is running against Johnson.

Akron Beacon Journal managing editor Doug Oplinger said the ad outraged him and misrepresented his news outlet. He said its fake headlines derived from a 2004 Beacon Journal editorial that criticized Garrison over a matter unrelated to this year's campaign. The ad was taken down after Beacon Journal lawyers contacted attorneys for Johnson's campaign, he said.

"These quotes were taken out of context, and out of context, they are a lie," said Oplinger, adding that the paper is examining whether it has further legal recourse against the campaign for making "a totally false presentation of the Beacon Journal."

Johnson campaign manager Sarah Poulton said the TV ad accurately quoted a Beacon Journal editorial that criticized Garrison, but the newspaper told the campaign on Wednesday that it "does not give permission for any quotes from its editorials to be used unless the entire editorial is quoted."

Poulton's statement did not address whether the campaign ad used an altered image of the newspaper's front page.

"Although it's clear that the law and First Amendment permit the use of quotes from newspapers in political ads, we have honored the newspaper's requests and are editing and replacing the commercial to remove the accurate quotes altogether," Poulton said in an email that accused Garrison and Obama of not wanting "scrutiny of their liberal record."

The newspaper's article on its beef with Johnson said it "has a strict policy on the use of its content in campaign advertizing. Nothing is to be altered."