— That never having taken flight training — a Navy requirement for its coveted pilot’s wings — “Polk clearly acquired some golden wings, attached them to his uniform, and had himself photographed.” Frank continues: “Resplendent above his left breast pocket are the golden wings authorized only for a qualified naval aviator.”

— That letters in Polk’s papers alleging shootdowns, wounds and a Purple Heart are “patently fictitious.”

— That though Polk insisted he devastated the Japanese as a pilot based on Guadalcanal and Tulagi (an island, too small for an airstrip, north of Guadalcanal), Polk was in fact “a junior officer supervising aircraft servicing” at Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field. His job “involved fueling and fixing combat aircraft, not flying them.”

Frank presents much else regarding “Polk’s fabrication of a false account of his naval service that undermines his credibility as a journalist. . . . He did not merely spin a few verbal yarns about his exploits: He paraded around wearing the wings of a Navy pilot when he knew he was not one, and he forged documents to support his deceits.” For more, go to www.weeklystandard.com.

Deceptions of more recent journalistic vintage have featured Janet Cooke (The Washington Post), Jayson Blair (The New York Times), Jack Kelly (USA Today), and Mary Mapes and Dan Rather (CBS) fabricating stories about others. They came tumbling down, and properly so. In George Polk, if Richard Frank is right, we have a diligent conjurer of his own military resume at least. “Polk’s actual (military) service was admirable, but his later stories burgeoned into a fantastic deception.”

Franks concludes: “Journalism that exposes ‘myriad forms of scandal and deceit’ deserves to be honored. So do reporters who take risks seeking the truth. But to honor them in the name of George Polk is a travesty.”

He’s right. But just as a host of establishment-press media declined to publish Frank’s findings, don’t hold your breath until a committee of surviving George Polk Award recipients forms up to demand their award be given a nobler name.