Thursday, March 08, 2012
Stars and Stripes, the military’s newspaper that operates independently from the armed services, has been told to relocate its offices from downtown Washington, DC, to a military base where it will share the same building used by a key public affairs office.
The Department of Defense ordered the move its 80-member staff to Fort Meade in Maryland as a cost-savings measure. But the newspaper’s staff says they will lose their independence if forced to operate among those it covers on a daily basis.
“It’s very hard for people to believe that we can be a news organization subsidized by the Defense Department and still be editorially independent,” Terry Leonard, Stars and Stripes’ editorial director, told The New York Times.
One Democrat on Capitol Hill, Representative Carl Levin, has asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta if it might not be possible to find other ways to save saving $1 million.
Stars and Stripes, which was founded in 1861, has a circulation of 70,000, while its web site attracts about 675,000 unique visitors a month. Most of its readers are military personnel.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
To Learn More:
Moving Military Newspaper to Base Raises Concerns on Independence (by Thom Shanker, New York Times)
Stars and Stripes Objects to Move (by Paul Farhi, Washington Post)
Army Bans Stars and Stripes Reporter from Covering Iraq Combat Team (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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