David Axe (born on April 11, 1978) is an American military correspondent, blogger, and graphic novelist. Axe founded the website ''War Is Boring'' in 2007 as a
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be c ...
, and later developed it into a
news blog
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...
.
Early life and education
David Axe was born on April 11, 1978 in
Arlington, Texas.
He attended Eisenhower High School from 1992 to 1996.
After graduation, he enrolled at
Furman University and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 2000.
Then he went to the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
to study medieval history before transferring to and graduating from the
University of South Carolina with a master's degree in fiction in 2004.
Journalism
Axe was engaged in freelance writing before joining the
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-largest ...
–based weekly newspaper ''Free Times'' to cover county politics.
In late 2004, he persuaded his editor to let him cover South Carolina guardsmen's deployment to the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
and moved to Iraq in January 2005.
Leaving the ''Free Times'' soon after, Axe continued to work in Iraq as a
war correspondent for ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'', ''
The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
'',
C-SPAN,
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
, ''
Popular Science'', ''
Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'', and ''
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Food and drink
* Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo"
History
* Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953
Hotels and resorts
* Cosmopoli ...
''.
In 2012, Axe reported in ''
The Diplomat
''The Diplomat'' is an international online news magazine covering politics, society, and culture in the Indo-Pacific region. It is based in Washington, D.C.
It was originally an Australian bi-monthly print magazine, founded by Minh Bui Jone ...
'' that U.S. special operations on the
Korean Peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
may have been infiltrating North Korea to gather intelligence based on quotes he attributed
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
Brigadier General
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
Neil Tolley. U.S. officials condemned the report, accusing Axe of making up quotes and attributing them to Tolley.
Retired
Navy SEAL
The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting s ...
Brandon Webb
Brandon Tyler Webb (born May 9, 1979) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Webb pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2003 through 2009, and, after multiple shoulder surgeries, signed with but ...
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
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
and caused rumors of its authenticity. Webb later took Axe's name off it and said that it was meant to be satirical. 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.
''War Is Boring''
Beginning in 2007, Axe began writing a
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be c ...
called ''War Is Boring'' and illustrated by cartoonist
Matt Bors.
The publication gained particular attention for its coverage of the defense industry, especially the
Lockheed Martin's controversial
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole combat aircraft that is intended to perform both air superiority and strike missions. It is also able to provide ele ...
program.
In May 2015,
Medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
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'' 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.
In July 2015, ''War Is Boring'' and
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was esta ...
launched the ''War College'' podcast, a joint venture hosted by Reuters opinion editor Jason Fields and ''War Is Boring'' contributing editor Matthew Gault.
David Axe left ''War Is Boring'' in 2019.
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
dogfight
A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...
, 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.
Then-
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
presidential candidate
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
cited ''War Is Boring'' coverage during an interview with
Hugh Hewitt
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and an attorney, academic, and author. A conservative, he writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is ...
in which he argued the F-35 program should be cancelled. 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.
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 the Islamic State
In response to rapid territorial gains made by the so-called Islamic State during the first half of 2014, and its universally condemned executions, reported human rights abuses and the fear of further spillovers of the Syrian Civil War, many s ...
that could have resulted in greater civilian casualties than initially reported.
After breaking the story, ''War Is Boring'' worked with the
Airwars project to share the documents with ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
, the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...
and the Dutch-language
RTL Nieuws. CBC's ''
The Fifth Estate'' would go on to incorporate the data into a larger investigative feature.
"Narin Afrin photo" controversy
During the
siege of Kobanî
The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the ''de fact ...
, a photo taken by British freelance photographer Matt Cetti-Roberts (at the time working with ''War Is Boring'') of
YPJ
(YPJ) ar, وحدات حماية المرأة
, image = File:YPJ Flag.svg
, caption = Flag of the YPJ
, dates = April 2013–present
, commander1 = Nesrin ...
snipers in the town of
Rabia became widely shared by activists on social media claiming it depicted female Kurdish guerilla leader
Narin Afrin, who was apparently in charge of
Kobanî's defense. The photo soon became a meme. ''War Is Boring'' 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.
"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'' Iraq coverage editor Kevin Knodell told Kurdish media outlet Rudaw.
References
External links
*
*
Danger Roomon ''
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
''
''Warships International Fleet Review''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Axe, David
1978 births
Living people
21st-century American journalists
American graphic novelists
American male bloggers
American male journalists
American military writers
American war correspondents
Furman University alumni
People from Arlington, Texas
University of South Carolina alumni
War correspondents of the Iraq War