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You are here: Home / Politics / NYT, Politco, CNN all lead with a lie: the false Vance attack on Walz’s military record

NYT, Politco, CNN all lead with a lie: the false Vance attack on Walz’s military record

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NYt headline carries a lie

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz retired from the Army National Guard in May 2005 with 24 years of service. The Ohio Sen. JD Vance claim that Walz shirked duty by retiring after learning of the deployment is a baldfaced lie. It was two months after Walz retired that “his unit received alert orders to deploy to Iraq.”

Two. Months.

According to records by the National Guard, the 1st Battalion of the 125th Field Artillery received an alert order on July 14, 2005, – two months after Walz retired. The mobilization order came in August and the unit mobilized in October.

Here is Vance’s lie about Walz:

When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that’s shameful.

The New York Times, Politico and CNN chose to spike their headlines with click bait by repeating Vance’s charge. They broke a cardinal rule of ethical journalism in this age of dis- and mis-information: refuse to amplify the lie.

Screen capture of Google news

The New York Times, Politico and CNN all amplified the J.D. Vance lie about Tim Walz’s military record.

Only Politico has subsequently modified the actual story headline (with an insider baseball reference):

screenshot of revised headline

The Politico social media promo does not match the story headline.

Here’s the thing. Republicans generated this lie out of whole cloth in 2018 when Walz ran for governor. They reprised it when Walz ran for re-election in 2022.

All it would have taken to contextualize Vance’s lies would have been… I dunno. Anticipating attacks (based on prior campaigns) and running a query? Asking questions? In short, acting like a journalist not a stenographer. When will they learn that these men must be fact-checked in real time?

Military service, compared

Vance, 40, served a single four-year enlistment in the Marine Corps as an enlisted combat correspondent in public affairs. When he left service in September 2007, he did so as a corporal.

Public affairs Marines play the primary role in telling the Marine Corps story to a global audience.

Here is Vance’s exaggeration about his service:

  • In his book, Hillbilly Elegy, Vance wrote: “I was lucky to escape any real fighting.”
  • While speaking to Wednesday, Vance asked his audience: “When were you ever in war?” He is implying that he saw front-line action. Like Trump, he deftly avoids direct statements, leading his audience to erroneous conclusions.

I agree that lying is “shameful,” whether by ommission or commission.

Walz, 60, enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1981, re-enlisted after 9-11, and served 24 years before retiring. When he left service, it was as “command sergeant major — the highest enlisted rank for his unit and one with considerable responsibility.”

What did Walz do those 24 years? Why, it seems he provided support for the war in Afghanistan:

As part of the job, he responded to natural disasters, served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan, and was stationed around Europe to train with NATO militaries. He received several Army medals and retired as a master sergeant shortly before running for Congress in 2006. Walz has repeatedly said he left the military in order to run for office, not out of cowardice, as Vance implies.

So much for ‘stolen valor.’

The Harris-Walz campaign issued a statement:

In his 24 years of service, the Governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Governor Walz would not ever insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way.

Lt General Mark Hertling U.S. Army (ret) on Walz’s military rank. I knew none of this.

It’s going to be a long slog until November if traditional media continue to amplify lies that come as easily as breathing to Donald Trump and Vance.

Democracy dies when news organizations fall asleep at the wheel.

 
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