Missing/Captured: Bowe Bergdahl

Like it or not, the ship has sailed. (I crack myself up)

Every SOF community has books written about them, usually by or with the assistance of that community's members. People slag on certain members or books, but Black Hawk Down got a pass...

SEAL self-promotion is a meme, and will continue to be, for a variety of usually just reasons. However, we can't ignore the fact that other units are getting in on the action. And if they don't have books? Have you seen the podcasts out there? The guests? The topics? The YouTube channels and videos?

I'm down to clown on the SEAL memes and their groundbreaking efforts, but if we want to be real about this now? No community is immune. Quiet Professionals exist, but the vocal minority is growing. Don't forget that an SF Major published a book about how to get selected...and was subsequently promoted. The horse is out, the barn is wide open, maybe we need to accept this fact and move on. "Back in our day" is no longer "to-day".
 
AWP said:
Like it or not, the ship has sailed. (I crack myself up)

Every SOF community has books written about them, usually by or with the assistance of that community's members. People slag on certain members or books, but Black Hawk Down got a pass...

SEAL self-promotion is a meme, and will continue to be, for a variety of usually just reasons. However, we can't ignore the fact that other units are getting in on the action. And if they don't have books? Have you seen the podcasts out there? The guests? The topics? The YouTube channels and videos?

I'm down to clown on the SEAL memes and their groundbreaking efforts, but if we want to be real about this now? No community is immune. Quiet Professionals exist, but the vocal minority is growing. Don't forget that an SF Major published a book about how to get selected...and was subsequently promoted. The horse is out, the barn is wide open, maybe we need to accept this fact and move on. "Back in our day" is no longer "to-day".
Click to expand...

This predates GWOT, really started growing legs in the 80s. My issue is not that folks are writing books, having podcasts, YouTube, Insta, blah blah blah. In some cases it's a good thing. It's good that major wrote a book on getting selected for a community that always needs people; same as it's good that esteemed colleague @amlove21 has One's Ready, for the same reason, but different media. Nor do I really care about the 'there I was' books.

Here, to me, is where shit started going sideways: Marcinko and Rogue Warrior. Our other esteemed colleague @Ooh-Rah , I think, brought it up previously. The man was a douchebag and a criminal and gave rise to a culture of anti-professional behavior, much less quiet professional. That opened up the gates. How many SEALs have written books in which they either knowingly or unwittingly lied, or gave up TTP? That's my issue. It's the unethical and borderline illegal publication (link: Murphy).

It seems that at least the books written by former army professionals are generally in good taste, truthful, and have left/right limits. It does not feel that way with a lot of the SEAL-centric media.

I think you are spot on that 'back in my day' doesn't hold water anymore. Back in my day there was the odd book and movie, maybe Gung-Ho magazine, and that was about it. Pre-interwebs and insta this and pod that. Now? Again, you are right: barn door is open, the horse is out. Can't find a publisher? Self publish on Amazon or other vendor. Start a podcast. Be a self-proclaimed mentor and trainer and hang a shingle.
 
AWP said:
Like it or not, the ship has sailed. (I crack myself up)

Every SOF community has books written about them, usually by or with the assistance of that community's members. People slag on certain members or books, but Black Hawk Down got a pass...

SEAL self-promotion is a meme, and will continue to be, for a variety of usually just reasons. However, we can't ignore the fact that other units are getting in on the action. And if they don't have books? Have you seen the podcasts out there? The guests? The topics? The YouTube channels and videos?

I'm down to clown on the SEAL memes and their groundbreaking efforts, but if we want to be real about this now? No community is immune. Quiet Professionals exist, but the vocal minority is growing. Don't forget that an SF Major published a book about how to get selected...and was subsequently promoted. The horse is out, the barn is wide open, maybe we need to accept this fact and move on. "Back in our day" is no longer "to-day".
Click to expand...

Some of it may be the times we live in, the rise of social media, the “me” generation, every swinging dick out there posting what he had for breakfast…Everybody wants to be “special”, to be heard above the din of a doomed multitude riding a dust mote in space.
 
TLDR20 said:
Well it is a niche place to find an article like that. It wasn’t in Army Times or some major news outlet at least.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the Daily Mail picked up the Audacy/Connecting Vets story and their readership is over 2 million per day.

If we Google “Chuck Ritter,” which any future employer is certain to do as part of pre-hiring due diligence, both the Daily Mail article and the Audacy piece pop up in the first page of searches. There is no way this issue doesn’t affect his future job prospects.
 
Marauder06 said:
Unfortunately the Daily Mail picked up the Audacy/Connecting Vets story and their readership is over 2 million per day.

If we Google “Chuck Ritter,” which any future employer is certain to do as part of pre-hiring due diligence, both the Daily Mail article and the Audacy piece pop up in the first page of searches. There is no way this issue doesn’t affect his future job prospects.
Click to expand...

Oh yikes that sucks
 
TLDR20 said:
Oh yikes that sucks
Click to expand...
I know, right?

If I’m a big time business exec or an HR rep, do I hire a guy with a literal international reputation of toxic leadership that includes reports of creeping on a subordinate’s wife? I don’t think I do…

The fact that he was completely exonerated in an official investigation is buried, while the salacious story is front and center.

I get it that journalists sometimes get things wrong, and even when one is operating in good faith, they may go with the information they believe to be accurate at the time. But when the picture becomes clearer, it seems like any reasonable person—especially reasonable people on, say, a jury—would agree that there is a responsibility to correct the record.

Jack Murphy is a public figure and I’m sure he has an alert set up to know when his name is being mentioned. And IIRC he was briefly a member here many years ago. I hope he sees this thread, and many more like it across the Internet, and does the right thing.
 
Marauder06 said:
Unfortunately the Daily Mail picked up the Audacy/Connecting Vets story and their readership is over 2 million per day.

If we Google “Chuck Ritter,” which any future employer is certain to do as part of pre-hiring due diligence, both the Daily Mail article and the Audacy piece pop up in the first page of searches. There is no way this issue doesn’t affect his future job prospects.
Click to expand...

To be fair, this applies to many of us today. I've turned down several people because of what I found about them online using nothing more than Google and their name. The most striking was a guy who had a DUI in Japan and it made the news.

Ritter's case, given the amount of info out there and the bad info that was never retracted? Yeah, his resume has gone into some black holes.
 
Marauder06 said:
I don't want to derail this thread, but in lieu of starting a new one, and related to the above...

Part 1:
Part 1: U.S. Special Forces Soldier Smeared By Reporter Who Did Not Provide Critical Update


Part 2:
Part 2: Smeared Special Forces Soldier Says He Learned How Unethical The Media Can Be

It's one thing to get a story wrong. I get that it can happen. It's totally another thing to refuse to retract it in light of overwhelming new evidence.

It's shitty to do a smear piece of a fellow vet, especially when it's based on hearsay. It's criminal--or it ought to be--to allow the smear to continue. I hope SGM Ritter sues the shit out of him.
Click to expand...

Thought it was interesting that I saw this...but now a lot of Jack's tweets make sense. He's subtweeting about Chuck.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1741245410859978854
 
ThunderHorse said:
Murphy's lawyer sent him a cease and desist. Which is funny.
Click to expand...
I saw that. A copy that someone posted on X is below. Jack Murphy spent all that money, and social capital, to send SGM Ritter a threatening letter (which the SGM no doubt laughed off as he posted it to the Internet) only for his parent company to take down the story immediately after... which is all SGM Ritter wanted in the first place.

step 0: be Jack Murphy, a guy no one likes or takes seriously anymore
step 1: write hit piece on war hero, based on sketchy evidence
step 2: fail to retract story when it becomes more than obvious that the whole thing was a complete fabrication
step 3: continue to act like a complete douche about the whole situation
step 4: sic your lawyer on the victim, claiming he was making "false statements concerning Jack Murphy," when this whole thing is really about false statements about Chuck Ritter
step 5: get COMPLETLEY embarrassed when your publisher is like "nah we're out" and takes the article down in its entirety, with no further explanation.

According to his lawyer, Jack "has been and will continue to be severely damaged" by SGM Ritter's attempts to defend his integrity and restore his reputation.

Good. Fuck you, Jack Murphy.

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