33 minutes ago, Hacker said:

I mean, except for that Steve is British, living in the UK, and doing his research and producing that content while physically residing in the UK.

Head for the Ecuadorian embassy Steve

4 hours ago, Hacker said:

I mean, except for that Steve is British, living in the UK, and doing his research and producing that content while physically residing in the UK.

Long-standing precedent that non-citizens still benefit from certain Constitutional protections, freedom of the press being one of them. 

4 hours ago, ClearedHot said:

Long-standing precedent that non-citizens still benefit from certain Constitutional protections, freedom of the press being one of them. 

Yes the Bill of Rights is a limitation on US Governmental powers.

Steve,

Did you attempt to contact Doc’s immediate family prior to releasing the video? At least an attempt to find out if they had been informed by the Air Force of his acute cause of death?  

I could not imagine being his family if you did not, and having a youtube video be the way that I find out the details of how my spouse/dad/uncle died.  I hope you took that into consideration.

Other operational details regarding supposed unit status in the video- I don’t agree with what you did, but you’re a journalist. You do you.  

 

On 5/20/2022 at 1:31 PM, Marco said:

Did you attempt to contact Doc’s immediate family prior to releasing the video? 

Yes. Contact was made some months ago. 

I really wanted to reply with a perspective to this thread on my old account but never got around to it. I'm prefacing this as a long-time admirer of Steve's work, particularly covering the amazing history of the Red Eagles and his 10 percent truth channel, but I was absolutely appalled by this video when he released it and think it serves as a shining example of why the majority of current collection of aviation journalists & spotters are so toxic.

Obviously, it goes without saying that the loss of Doc was tragic and his story/career should absolutely be highlighted, but what Steve did was literally the worst possible way to do it. Yes, he has every right to report what he wants and what his sources divulged (which was bad on their parts if they're credible), hes a journalist and we should celebrate free press. But the problem here is, like many of his counterparts (the Alex Holdings, Trevor Rogoways, David Cenciottis etc) they're obsessed with classified programs and getting the scoop for clicks while giving a big middle finger to OPSEC. These dudes likely don't realize the insane level of compartmentalization necessary to keep certain things from public eye, and they've literally created opsec briefings because of stuff they've reported (my buddys had to sit through several).

Steve literally could've made the entire video without the single mentioning of a Flanker or any aircraft for that matter, but he used Docs' tragic loss as an excuse to tell the world "hey I know X&Y" about a black program, a program that I'm sure Doc was highly passionate about and spent much effort to help protect the integrity of. But journalists today are so obsessed with clicks and ad revenue that they almost forget the team they're playing for.

Like Steve said, I know I'm probably not going to win any points with this post either.

Sketch

If it was supposed to be a secret that Doc was flying a Flanker when he was tragically killed, then it was an appallingly badly kept one, and the Air Force needs to do a much better job of keeping the compartments you speak of airtight.

I take the "toxic journalist: 'Hey, I know X&Y'" allegation very seriously. It's disappointing that this is your conclusion about me.

I wish I could tell you about some of the emotional drivers for researching the story and telling it the way I did, but they pertain to Doc's immediate family, and therefore rightly remain private.

I get where you’re coming from Sketch, but I think the energy should be directed at the dudes in the know who spill the beans (whether fully or through aggregate “partial” comments, eye winks, whatever). There’s nothing wrong with Steve’s passion, there’s something wrong with dudes opening their mouth on stuff they shouldn’t. Should I be mad at the Drive, or should I be mad at the douchebag who completely ignored the requirements of his security clearance and NDAs and gave info to a member of the press?

I’ve enjoyed Steve’s work, even if I have a problem with people he has interviewed.

Steve just to clarify, I don't necessarily think you're work as a journalist is toxic, I was more referring to the aviation newsphere in general. The Aviationist might as well be working for China. I admire your work, I own both of your Red Eagles books and sub to your channel. I just think it was a huge foul to mention specifics when you didn't have to. Even if its a poorly kept secret as you say why add to it? Why make our jobs harder? And I agree the bros you interviewed should be held accountable, but if I had heard the same details not once would I have even for one second ever thought to share them online.

Happy to chat more offline if you want

It's a double-edged sword, but as Brabus so correctly pointed out, the impetus is on the military to protect sensitive and/or classified material.

The same argument can be made about PA wanting to release information just so they can look good.  

I don't consider the media to be spies (well, not ALL of them), but we all know there is a lot of information our adversaries learn about us through open source reporting (a commonly cited intelligence community rule of thumb has long been that 60–90% of useful intelligence can originate from open sources).

Those of us who have been on here for a while remember Rainman’s famous recommendation when it comes to the media (“never talk to them”) but they are not the only ones trying to extract info from us.   “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and “Never Pass Up The Opportunity To Shut The Fuck Up!” remind us how important OPSEC is, especially on forums such as this one.

Steve is a well-known and respected aviation journalist  who has contributed a lot to this forum; but he’s not the USAF and shouldn’t be expected to protect its secrets like the rest of us.  That’s our job!

And I don’t fault him for sharing things, that’s his job!