David Axe

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David Axe
David Axe.jpg
David Axe in 2011
NationalityAmerican
OccupationMilitary Correspondent
Websitehttp://www.warisboring.com/

David Axe is an American military correspondent, blogger, and graphic novelist. Axe founded the website War is Boring in 2007 as a webcomic, and later developed it into a news blog.

Journalism[]

In 2012, Axe reported in The Diplomat that U.S. special operations on the Korean Peninsula may have been infiltrating North Korea to gather intelligence based on quotes he attributed U.S. Army Brigadier General Neil Tolley in a story about. U.S. officials condemned the report, accusing Axe of making up quotes and attributing them to Tolley.[1] Retired Navy SEAL Brandon Webb circulated a suicide note ostensibly written and signed by Axe, which depicted him killing himself in shame for making up the story. The note circulated on Twitter and Facebook and caused rumors of its authenticity. Webb later took Axe's name off it and said that it was meant to be satirical.[2][3] Several other reporters who were in the same room publicly came to Axe's defense, saying they heard the same things and that Axe's story accurately quoted Tolley's remarks. Tolley stated that Axe had misquoted him as he was speaking hypothetically.[4]

War is Boring[]

Beginning in 2007, Axe began writing a webcomic called War is Boring and illustrated by cartoonist Matt Bors.[5]

The publication gained particular attention for its coverage of the defense industry, especially the Lockheed Martin’s controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.[6]

In May 2015, Medium made significant changes to its company structure. This included massive funding cuts in the editorial department. Medium shut down several publications and forced many others to cut longtime editors and writers. War is Boring's budget was heavily slashed, most of the staff was laid off and story output greatly decreased. Before long, Axe publicly announced that War is Boring was searching for a new publisher.[7]

In 2016 War is Boring and Reuters launched the War College podcast, a joint venture hosted by Reuters Opinion Editor Jason Fields and War is Boring Contributing Editor Matthew Gault.[8]

Notable Stories[]

F-35 “Dogfight Leak”[]

In 2015 Axe obtained a leaked testing report written by a pilot that recounted how the F-35 joint strike fighter the tester was flying was unable to outmaneuver an F-16 fighter it was facing off against in a simulated dog fight, the report circulated widely in defense publications and mainstream media outlets. The story has since been proven to be a misrepresentation of the facts with Axe's claims disproven on the first page of the test report.[9][10][11]

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump cited War is Boring's coverage during an interview with Hugh Hewitt in which he argued the F-35 program should be cancelled.[12] This possibly helped spur a showdown between Trump and Lockheed Martin execs that Trump claimed reduced the cost of the program, though several analysts have questioned the savings.[13]

Civilian casualties in Syria and Iraq[]

War is Boring reporter Joseph Trevithick obtained U.S. military documents that revealed possible mistakes by Canadian pilots in the war against Islamic State that could have resulted in greater civilian casualties than initially reported.[14][15]

After breaking the story, War Is Boring worked with the Air Wars Project to share the documents with The Guardian, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Dutch language RTL News.[16][17][18][19] CBC's The Fifth Estate would go on to incorporate the data into a larger investigative feature.[20]

“Nalin Afrin Photo” controversy[]

During the battle of Kobani, a photo taken by British freelance photographer Matt Cetti-Roberts (at the time working with War is Boring) of YPJ snipers in the town of Rabia became widely shared by activists on social media claiming it depicted female Kurdish guerilla leader Nalin Afrin, who was apparently in charge of Kobani's defense. The photo soon became a meme. War is Boring's Iraq coverage editor Kevin Knodell wrote a post clarifying the photo's origin, and asserted that the woman in the photo was highly unlikely to be Afrin. The photo, as well as comments by Knodell and Cetti-Roberts on Twitter became a subject of debate in both French and Kurdish media.[21]

“People have very sudden, very emotional responses to things they see on the internet, and they share them with friends and families. But sometimes they do that without checking on facts, or seeing if there's any truth to what they are seeing or reading. Social media is a great thing, but it has its downsides too,” War is Boring's Iraq coverage editor Kevin Knodell told Kurdish Media outlet Rudaw.[22]

References[]

  1. ^ Harlan, Chico (2012-05-29). "U.S. denies North Korea commando operation". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  2. ^ "Bullshit Journalism - SOFREP". NEWSREP. 4 June 2012.
  3. ^ Axe, David (30 May 2012). "A former Navy SEAL named Brandon T Webb (@sofrep) wrote online that I killed myself".
  4. ^ Ryall, Julian (31 May 2012). "US special forces head admits North Korea comments 'could have been clearer'" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  5. ^ "[War Is Boring] - C-SPAN.org". c-span.org.
  6. ^ Haberman, Clyde (24 January 2016). "Despite Decades of Stealth, Sticking Points Bedevil F-35 Jet" – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ Weissman, Cale Guthrie. "Medium, the publishing platform started by one of Twitter's cofounders, is gutting some of its most popular sites". Business Insider.
  8. ^ Gault, Matthew (14 July 2016). "War College". Archived from the original on 1 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Test Pilot: The F-35 Can't Dogfight Worth a Damn". Popular Mechanics. 30 June 2015.
  10. ^ "Pentagon says damning report of F-35 troubles 'doesn't tell the entire story'". The Washington Post. 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2019-06-15.
  11. ^ "Military: Don't Worry If Most Expensive Fighter Jet Ever Can't Dogfight Well". ABC News.
  12. ^ Swarts, Phillip (7 August 2017). "Trump wants to 'fire' F-35". Air Force Times.
  13. ^ Cohen, Zachary. "Trump: I've saved US billions on F-35 fighters". CNN.
  14. ^ "Canadian airstrike in Iraq may have killed up to 27 civilians: Kurdish militia soldier". Toronto Star. 3 September 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  15. ^ "War Is Boring - From drones to AKs, high technology to low politics". War Is Boring.
  16. ^ "Up to 27 Iraqi civilians may have been killed in Canadian airstrike, Pentagon document reveals". Archived from the original on 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  17. ^ Ross, Alice (3 September 2015). "Civilian deaths claimed in 71 US-led airstrikes on Isis" – via www.theguardian.com.
  18. ^ Edwards, Michael (4 September 2015). "Australian air strike 'may have killed civilians'". ABC News.
  19. ^ "Coalitie tegen IS: nauwelijks burgers gedood bij luchtaanvallen". RTL Nieuws. 3 September 2015.
  20. ^ "Canada in Iraq : The Hidden War". Archived from the original on 2017-03-09. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  21. ^ "Nalin Afrin, l'icône kurde, a plusieurs visages". France 24 (in French). 13 October 2014.
  22. ^ Devi, Sharmila (18 October 2014). "Kurds confused in fog of war".

External links[]

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