SAN ANTONIO — Hours after Tucker Carlson called the nation's top military officer a "pig," veterans demanded USAA pull advertising from the Fox News host's time slot.
But data from commercial-tracking company iSpot.TV indicates the company hasn't run an ad during Carlson's show since Sept. 2019.
In the two weeks since, the financial company has not defended its reputation, corrected the record, or even addressed the controversy.
Carlson criticized the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, for comments about "white rage" during a congressional hearing near the end of June. A representative asked Milley about teaching critical race theory to military officers.
"He's not just a pig. He's stupid," Carlson laughed.
The comment offended veterans, like retired Col. Mike Jason. He and others soon shifted attention to advertisers running commercials during Carlson's show.
"It was just beyond the pale, knowing this company that I'm a member of chooses to advertise and sponsor that," Jason said in an interview, before he was aware USAA stopped running ads during Carlson's timeslot.
The near 30-year USAA member says he wrote his insurer, asking them to assert its values. The response was generic and dissatisfying, he said.
"It's become political to say, 'Oh my gosh, we believe in equality for everybody and we should be decent and not call our senior leaders 'pigs' and 'stupid' on live television,'" he said.
Likeminded veterans employed the hashtag "#USAAWalkAway" to demonstrate their willingness to leave the company over similar concerns. It's not clear how many followed through.
"We're kind of disappointed in their silence right now and we wish they would reaffirm the values of the brand, of service, of decency and respect," Jason said, adding that USAA has treated his family well for decades.
Even as the misinformed claims mounted against the company, the financial giant declined to defend its brand.
"You would think it'd be easy to put up something that said, you know, 'We haven't done this in two years,'" UTSA communications professor Steven Levitt said. "But that opens you up to more counter-criticism: 'Well, you never should've been doing it in the first place.'"
Levitt theorizes USAA decided, almost immediately, to publicly ignore the complaints. Levitt says irked USAA members were not likely to be appeased, had the company acknowledged it no longer sponsored Carlson's show.
Moreover, Levitt says any statement would have offended another sect of USAA's membership that supports Carlson.
"These insurance companies are absolute experts in risk assessment and I have to believe they've assessed the risk of losing a few of their members is worth letting this die down and go away," the professor said.
Two weeks after the comments, Google analytics show internet searches involving the phrase "USAA" are down almost 50 percent from peak interest.
"The interesting thing about public relations is doing nothing is often the right course of action," he said.
The company did not respond to KENS' repeated request for comment.
"That's the easy way out, right?" Jason said. "I think they're caught trying to decide who their core constituency is."
He continued, "If they're not willing to answer or face up to the moral moment, I don't know that many of us have any other choice."