After Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday that she had selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, mainstream media outlets such as USA Today were quick to publish articles singing his praises.
But the vaunted career the national media initially presented for Walz quickly took a turn when those familiar with his misrepresentations and “stolen valor” began complaining over inaccurate media coverage.
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USA Today was forced to quietly edit its story about Walz’s military career after details about his time in the military resurfaced, showing that their original report was extremely misleading.
“He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest rank for enlisted soldiers. His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq,” said USA Today in the original article.
In discussing the deployment of Walz’s battalion to Iraq, the media outlet conspicuously failed to mention that the deployment came after Walz left, leaving readers with the entirely false implication that Walz was, at some point, deployed to a combat zone.
In reality, Walz retired shortly before his battalion’s deployment and reportedly left specifically to avoid being sent to a combat zone with his fellow National Guardsmen.
He also allegedly lied to his superiors, claiming that he intended to go on deployment before he officially retired.
Shortly after the article was published, USA Today quietly edited the misleading statement, providing no change log to show what had been altered.
The original version of the article is entirely inaccessible and was not saved on publicly available internet archive sources.
The Maine Wire was able to take a screenshot of the original before it became inaccessible.
The edited version added a slight clarification, specifying that “His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq shortly after Walz’s retirement.”
It is unclear what prompted the change or whether the outlet received backlash for the misleading statement.
It is possible that the outlet simply noticed a misleading statement and, out of a desire to provide accurate, clear, unbiased news to the American people, removed it. However, the article’s other misleading claim, which has not been removed, suggests otherwise.
“He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers,” said USA Today.
An open letter penned by two retired command sergeants major suggests that Walz’s claims of ending his military career as a command sergeant major were false and may constitute stolen valor.
According to the letter, Walz was only promoted to the rank conditionally, requiring that he remain in the military for at least two years and that he finish training courses or be reduced to a lower rank.
He fulfilled neither of those conditions, but nevertheless continued to claim that, as command sergeant major, he was the highest-ranked enlisted officer ever to serve in Congress.
The authors of the letter, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, argued that Walz was actually a rank lower than he claimed and stated that Walz only received the retirement benefits of his true, lower rank.
Despite their edits, USA Today entirely fails to address the controversy surrounding Walz’s rank or the allegations that he specifically retired in order to avoid active duty service in Iraq.
I wish the television movie stations would run the movie “ 1984 “ .
There are thousands of people in Maine who have NO Idea what the Memory Hole is ….. and they sure as hell won’t read the book .
“ The Hole “ is getting plenty of use these days .
is getting a lot of use in 2024 .
Walz did not leave “specifically to avoid being sent to a combat zone.” He had filed his paperwork to become a candidate for the House months before the deployment was announced. He served honorably for 24 years and had been contemplating a House run for years.
To say that he avoided combat service is a flat-out lie–just like purple heart and bronze star medal-winner Kerry was slandered and a guy who lost three limbs for his country in Vietnam, Max Cleland, was defamed by shameless haters.
Stop with the “Swift Boating”. I respect all that serve and have served. Among those include my father who was a decorated and wounded WWII veteran, a cousin who was a Marine and fought in The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, and another cousin who was a Green Beret and came home from Nam in a body bag. I hold the highest esteem for the late Senator John McCain who endured 5 1/2 of torture in defense of his fellow prisoners. When military personnel are “Swift Boated” then all that are serving or have served are the victims. Enough with this cr@p and disgusting attacks. I never crossed my mind to go after Senator Vance or any Republican member who served, that’s not what I’m about. I can disagree with views but never the service they give to all of us.
I hope we can agree on that.
Liars gotta lie.
“ Da Nang Dick “ Blumenthal got a pass . Why shouldn’t we give one to Walz ?
Democrats will use whatever trick works to embellish their “ stories “ and cover up their past tracks . The media encourages these “ misdirections “ and
“ innuendos “ . Democrats are liars .
Keep watching — Walz indicated a number of times that he was overseas — he was not.
He’s faking and lying just like when he was arrested for DUI and pretended to be deaf in an attempt to get out of it.
He was the top NCO. Men looked up to him. To some he was a father figure .. Plus he lied about being a combat soldier. If he was a Republican the Democrats and media would be ripping the flesh off his bones.
They attacked Tom Cotton of all people. He could have gone JAG but went infantry. Became an Airborne Ranger and served in an airborne division in Iraq and they still went after him.
Walz had a good record , but no he had to pretend otherwise. In Private Ryan THanks played a school teacher who became an infantry officer in WW2 . I believe he fantasized he was that guy. The Democrats believe fantasy is reality . Like a boy can be a girl. Melonhead Walz believes that ,too.
Too many in Maine will buy his act.
That’s what “went on” means: the next thing happened AFTER the other thing. This edit that you say they made doesn’t actually change what the sentence meant at all. You’re making something out of literally nothing.