David Axe

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David Axe
David Axe.jpg
Axe in 2011
Born (1978-04-11) April 11, 1978 (age 46)
Arlington, Texas, U.S.
Education Furman University (BA)
University of South Carolina (MA)
Occupations
  • Military correspondent
  • blogger
  • graphic novelist

David Axe (born April 11, 1978) 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.

Contents

Early life and education

David Axe was born on April 11, 1978, in Arlington, Texas. [1] [2] He attended Eisenhower High School from 1992 to 1996. [1] After graduation, he enrolled at Furman University and earned a bachelor's degree in history in 2000. [3] [1] Then he went to the University of Virginia to study medieval history before transferring to and graduating from the University of South Carolina with a master's degree in fiction in 2004. [3] [1]

Journalism

Axe was engaged in freelance writing before joining the Columbia, South Carolina-based weekly newspaper Free Times to cover county politics. [2] [4] In late 2004, he persuaded his editor to let him cover South Carolina guardsmen's deployment to the Iraq War and moved to Iraq in January 2005. [4] [2] Leaving the Free Times soon after, Axe continued to work in Iraq as a war correspondent for The Village Voice , The Washington Times , C-SPAN, BBC Radio, Popular Science , Fast Company , and Cosmopolitan . [2]

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 Axe's coverage of Lockheed Martin's controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. [6]

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 to U.S. Army Brigadier General Neil Tolley. U.S. officials condemned the report, accusing Axe of making up quotes and attributing them to Tolley. [7] 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. [8] [9] 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. [10]

David Axe left War Is Boring in 2019. [11]

Axe has been a member of the staff of Forbes since 2020 as a war correspondent. [12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "David Axe". FilmFreeway . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lomando White, Patricia (March 26, 2007). "Pitt to Feature Editorial Cartoonists Who Take Aim at Iraq War" (PDF). Pitt Chronicle. Vol. VIII, no. 11. p. 7. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  3. 1 2 "David". MySpace . Archived from the original on July 7, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Grant, Will (August 4, 2012). "David Axe: A Face of Modern War Correspondence". DPx Gear. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  5. ↑ War Is Boring. C-SPAN. November 21, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  6. ↑ Haberman, Clyde (January 24, 2016). "Despite Decades of Stealth, Sticking Points Bedevil F-35 Jet". The New York Times . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  7. ↑ Harlan, Chico (May 29, 2012). "U.S. denies North Korea commando operation". The Washington Post . Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  8. ↑ Webb, Brandon (June 4, 2012). "Bullshit Journalism Has Consequences". NEWSREP. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  9. ↑ Axe, David [@daxe] (May 31, 2012). "A former Navy SEAL named Brandon T Webb (@sofrep) wrote online that I killed myself. sofrep.com/7608/reporter-kil…" (Tweet). Retrieved December 20, 2022– via Twitter.
  10. ↑ Ryall, Julian (May 31, 2012). "US special forces head admits North Korea comments 'could have been clearer'". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  11. ↑ Axe, David [@daxe] (May 6, 2020). "In early 2019 I was coming off a bad few years running War Is Boring for a chain of shitty owners. [...]" (Tweet). Retrieved December 20, 2022– via Twitter.
  12. ↑ "David Axe". Forbes . Retrieved May 11, 2024.
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