Trump reverses Pentagon decision to fold ‘Stars and Stripes’ publication
“It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”
This week, the Pentagon ordered the military’s independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, to cease publication this month.
However, President Donald Trump ordered a halt to that decision.
The paper was set to cease publication by the end of September under the department’s proposed budget.
“The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump tweeted Friday afternoon, adding, “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!
Members of Congress also objected to the defunding and closure.
Members of Congress also objected to defunding Stars and Stripes, appealing to Defense Secretary Mark Esper to reinstate the money. A bipartisan letter signed by 15 senators reminded Esper that the department is legally prohibited from canceling a budget program while a temporary resolution to fund the federal government is in effect.
Esper’s office released a statement, saying the decision was “a result of the Defense-wide Review as outlined in the President’s Budget Request (PBR) for Fiscal Year 2021.” The statement outlined the timeline for wrapping up publication, with the last issue on Sept. 30. The organization would be dissolved by the end of January.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., separately wrote to Esper, urging him to maintain funding for the paper, describing it as a “hometown paper” for members of the armed forces.
“As you may know, there is strong support for the Stars and Stripes in Congress,” the letter said. “In fact, the House Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which passed the House of Representatives on July 31, 2020, included additional funding for the publication, and both house of Congress have resolutions supporting the mission of the Stars and Stripes.”
The paper has a long and distinguished history, especially during the era when reporters did actual journalism . . . and under battlefield conditions.
The first Stars and Stripes rolled off presses Nov. 9, 1861 in Bloomfield, Missouri when forces headed by Ulysses Grant overran the tiny town on the way to Cape Girardeau. A group of Grant’s troops who had been pressmen before the war set up shop at a local newspaper office abandoned by its Confederate sympathizer publisher.
Since then Stars and Stripes has launched the careers of famous journalists such as cartoonist Bill Mauldin and TV commentator Andy Rooney. And its independence from the Pentagon brass has been guaranteed by such distinguished military leaders at Gens. John G. Pershing, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower once reprimanded Gen. George Patton for trying to censor Mauldin cartoons he didn’t like.
Today Stars and Stripes is printed at sites around the world and delivered daily to troops — even those on the front lines, where the internet is spotty or inaccessible. As the “local paper” for the military, it provides intensive and critical coverage of issues that are important to members of the nation’s armed services and “cuts through political and military brass BS talking points,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine veteran, told Military.com.
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Comments
I am glad to see that President Trump is ordering that Stars & Stripes be continued. Since I was Navy, we didn’t get it on our ship while deployed but when we were in port, it was good to read. Thank you President Trump.
At this moment, members of the United States Military are deliberately and maliciously trying to undercut President Trump by leaking a story to Fox News’s Jennifer Griffin concerning John McCanin. The tale goes that Trump did not want flags to fly at half staff upon the death of John McCain.
I for one agree that McCain was unworthy of such an honor.
Fox goes into full Democrat mode on Saturday afternoons with John Scott.
dystopia, he should never have touched that dossier. Not going to keep commenting on his life before the dossier, but putting his hands on it stained his legacy forever.
Why would President Trump (or anyone else in their right) mind honor a man who tried to destroy him with a calumny?
Fox, Cavuto and Griffin
A trio of bastards
Pretty sure a Ryan is behind this…
even those on the front lines, where the internet is spotty or inaccessible.
Like where? During the second Iraq unpleasantness, I had servicemen—strangers—e-mailing me about specific features and markings on 80-year-old firearms they’d captured, to help them evaluate whether they were worth the effort to bring back. And those were hardly high-priority communications. I’d be shocked if military connectivity everywhere wasn’t better than mine.
Tom,
Like where..are troops deployed with spotty or no internet? Fair question.
Ramadi Iraq in August 2006 through May 2007. I was tasked to travel to TQ, AL Taquadam, in order to train on, sign equipment receipts, arrange transport for and escort back to our small base in Ramadi of a Segovia internet package for use in morale and welfare.
The small, less than battalion strength combat outposts didn’t have dedicated internet access for the most part. Practically speaking no company or reinforced company size COP did either. Troops were rotated back to nearest Forward Operating Base which had those facilities as part of their patrol cycle whenever possible. They would do a presence patrol along the MSR to arrive at the FOB to drop off/pick up laundry, use the internet and phones, eat in a real dining facility and in some cases shower.
The FOBs had most every modern convenience. The guys on COBs and small patrol based not so much. Our shower was a rooftop black water tank, Sun heated gravity fed. We had to install the damn thing ourselves in 2006 after we ‘acquired ‘ the necessary components and ‘encouraged/induced’ the water truck guy to bring us not quite potable water as a part of our patrols. Not everyone had a reliable daily access to internet for amusement.
In general, the longer time the place had been established the better the conditions. Overlayed is the AF and Navy has the absolute best facilities. Then the Army then the Marines. The best meals I ate in my entire service were in a Navy DFAC. The worst permanent facilities I used were operated by Marines. My own service, the Army, had a way of sending me to s-holes. That was my experience, others have their own experience.
Meh. 27 years overseas, so I know the S&S. He should have canned it. Sadly, the S&S is filled with the same Leftard “journalists” as most newspapers. It’s garbage, and only inches ahead of the Military Times family of “newspapers.”
Keep it.
Then fix it.
repair requires canning a significant portion of the pentagon hierarchy.
True, and that should be one of the first things Trump does in the coming 2nd term. He’s fixed the military funding, now fix the leadership problem starting at the top.
He should have let it die. I’m deployed to Afghanistan and every issue has anti-Trump articles. The editorial page either has Washington Post or New York Times posts about him not knowing what he’s doing. The editorial “cartoons” always show him doing something stupid. The Stars & Stripes is not what it was & needs to go.
was pretty nice in the late 80 but around 2005 or so I started seeing a real slide leftwards and towards opinion based articles. just got worse as time went on.
If you read military magazines regularly, you’ll find Stars And Stripes is a bit ‘woke’. It was off my reading list long ago.
As a high schooler in Germany in 1960 I read about Ted Williams’ last home run the day before in the morning’s Stars and Stripes.
i started reading pacific stars & stripes in 1983 in the philippines. it was great back then. starting with the obama era the s&s took on a leftist slant. i rarely read it now, it is a globalist, insulting, anti trump rag. s-can the s&s, along with npr. both government organs are beyond repair.
The Stars & Lies is both obsolete and toxic to morale.