In the last four months, the U.S. veterans’ community has been going through the same shock to the system that the American journalism community experienced 22 years ago, discovering that their ranks are infiltrated by a few self-serving liars whose indiscretions threatened to hurt the credibility of everyone sharing their title.
This came about because of an interesting moment in media.
Up until recently, men who served in the U.S. military’s special forces were all but invisible, both during their wartime assignments and afterwards in their post-retirement lives. But between 2012 and 2018, four hit films from Hollywood — Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor, Thirteen Hours and 12 Strong — ramped up the public’s interest in these Army and Navy units, particularly the Seals, the Green Berets and the Delta Force. This happened to coincide with the rise of do-it-yourself podcasts and YouTube channels. Fast-forward to today and there are dozens and dozens of former special forces operators who are either hosts of their own internet shows, or regular guests on some of the biggest platforms in alternative media. This group is sometimes loosely referred to as ‘the Vet Bro Influencer Community.’ They’re generally tough men who have built their audiences around discussing everything from physical fitness and firearms culture, to military politics and personal motivation. While their content skews traditionally masculine and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, some of them are talented creators and good storytellers.
And that last part is where all the drama has been erupting — storytelling.
You see, several of these individuals have been telling tales that sound so spectacular that they even spill over the banks of Hollywood-esque imagination. And what’s the saying about something that seems too good to be true? Recently, some quiet, unassuming veterans who fought in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria have reluctantly stepped out of the shadows to call bullshit on the yarns those specific personalities are selling, clocking them as grandiose exaggerations or flat-out lies. This development, in turn, has caused most of the remaining former special forces operators who have podcasts and YouTube channels to turn their proverbial guns on the handful of mega-influencers in question, publicly castigating them as embarrassments, and accusing them of a serious transgression in veterans’ culture: stolen valor.
All of the folks involved in this drama have impressive audiences, but none are trained journalists; and that’s only worth mentioning because they might not fully grasp some of the legal liability embedded in their accusations. That’s why CN&R is not going to name the influencers being accused of lying. We can say that all of them have at least been guests on a number of the biggest podcasts in the world.
What’s more interesting, socially, is that the veterans’ community is going through an unfortunate revelation very similar to one that American reporters went through between 1998 and 2003. It started with Stephen Glass, who appears to have harbored ambitions of being one of the biggest names in print journalism back then. He was certainly on that path: Glass was getting published regularly in Rolling Stone and The New Republic. But there was a major problem. Glass was fabricating entire sections and events in his stories. He got away with this for around three years before getting caught. Yet Glass’s public downfall did nothing to dissuade another up-and-comer named Jayson Blair, whose reporting lies made it all the way into the nation’s main paper of record, The New York Times. Blair was eventually exposed as a fraud, too. The irony is — and we’re far from the first to notice this — the real stories involved in Blair and Glass’s newspaper assignments, just like the real activities and missions of the black sheep special forces operators now under fire, were already good enough to tell on their own merit. There was literally no reason to resort to falsehoods, other than the temptation of standing just a little taller over their peers who were playing by the rules of honesty.
This was a very dark time for American journalism, and the collective aftermath was still being felt in 2006 when some of the better-known reporters associated with News & Review were just starting their careers. In fact, around that time in Northern California, a prominent newspaper journalist was accused of lying in at least one of their stories — and lying about entirely stupid and insignificant things. CN&R has a lot more direct knowledge of that situation than the Glass and Blair sagas, and we can tell you there was nothing for that reporter to gain from their inventions other than continuing to have the snappiest and most intriguing leads possible in their stories. In essence, if they were fibbing in pieces, it was probably for awards consideration, regional clout and potential ladder-climbing to better-paying jobs in our industry.
While there are parallels between what happened in those days and what’s going on now with the Vet Bro Influencer Community, the motivations for lying have been put on super-steroids by the new social media climate, and that goes for journalists and former special forces operators alike. It goes for most professions. In the time of Glass and Blair, it was about chasing book contracts, shiny accolades and big money. Today, it’s about racking up more followers and subscribers, so that one can evolve into their own “brand.” Given that millions of English speakers around the world are now trying to be content creators online, the incentives for professional reporters to exaggerate and lie in order to cut through the white noise are worse than ever. The main way to avoid this, besides individuals holding tight to personal integrity, is for news organizations to put as much emphasis as possible on journalism for the public good rather than journalism geared for the algorithms. Sadly, that’s easier said than done in an era where local and regional newsrooms are fighting for their very survival; but it’s still the best way to avoid having members of our tribe give into this temptation again.
This is an opinion-based editorial by Chico News & Review.
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