Military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" threatened by the Pentagon

Text by: Romain Mielcarek Follow

In the United States, this newspaper is an institution. Its mission: to inform soldiers so that they understand the reasons for their engagement. But the "Stars and Stripes" is today threatened by the White House budget plan.

Publicity

" My first tour in Germany, in 1976, I bought the Stars and Stripes at the local snack bar, like most soldiers there," recalls James Burgin, who served for twenty years as a soldier, then twenty years as a civilian, in the US military. I read it every day, except when I was in the field. I loved reading it with my breakfast or a coffee, at the bar or at the Burger King. Like him, many soldiers, but also their families, followed the upheavals of the world thanks to the Stars and Stripes distributed in their garrisons.

The Stars and Stripes , which bears the same name as the flag of the United States , is a curiosity: partly funded by the United States Department of Defense, its mission is to inform the men and women who wear the uniform . Its history goes back a long way: a first version was born during the War of Independence, in 1861, when soldiers relaunched an abandoned newspaper. During the First World War, he reappeared in Paris, to feed the troops on the front with fresh news. It will be released on a regular basis from 1942, until today, in paper and digital form.

However, on February 10, the newspaper's team and its readers learned bad news: the federal budget plan proposed by Donald Trump for 2021 plans to cut the $ 15 million intended for the operation of the Stars and Stripes.

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Indispensable for troops

The military community in the United States is huge: 1.4 million active military personnel, including tens of thousands overseas, plus 800,000 reservists, millions of veterans and their families. There are many media dedicated to this population, including the Stars and Stripes which sees its role guaranteed by the American Congress. In its columns, the subjects are varied: doubts about the capabilities of the latest combat aircraft, the progress of the war in Syria , the budgetary debates ... Or even the best sausage huts when one is assigned to Germany.

With the removal of the 15 million from the Pentagon, the newspaper loses half of its budget. " We will no longer be able to fulfill our mission," regrets its editor, Max Lederer. The Defense budget for 2021 is forecast at $ 740 billion. What are they going to do with the 15 million? "

Defense Secretary Mark Esper had promised to cut spending not directly related to military operations. The Pentagon, while welcoming the role of the newspaper, suggests that it finds other recipes. For Max Lederer, even if subscriptions and advertising bring part of the resources, it is impossible to be viable without this public funding: " A soldier in operation in Iraq does not walk around with his quarter dollar in his waistcoat by bullets to buy His diary. Often, they have no phone or Internet, for security reasons. And for their part, advertisers do not see the point of addressing people who spend months patrolling the other side of the world. "

Editorial independence

The hundred or so Stars and Stripe journalists are employees of the Defense Department. Among them, 13 are even "military reporters". Editorial independence is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, but there is a limit, says Max Lederer: “ We don't write editorials. We cannot support a candidate or a political party. But for the rest, if someone commits fraud, we write that it is fraud. And if it does not please some readers, we have nothing to do with it. Among Donald Trump supporters, the newspaper is regularly criticized for reporting the President's approximations, lies and manipulations.

It is because of these principles that the journalists of the Stars and Stripes were particularly annoyed by the official justification for this budget cut. " Above all, we decided that in the modern age, newspapers are probably no longer the best means of communication, " said Elaine McCusker, Pentagon auditor, in a press conference on February 10.

Ernie Gates, mediator of the newspaper and representative of its readers, immediately retaliated on social networks by recalling the difference between the role of information of this media and the communication of the armies: “ Thank you for spreading the word: the mission of the Stars and Stripes is not to communicate the message of the Defense Department or the command, but to be an independent publication, protected by the 1st Amendment, which serves the troops, in particular those deployed. "

In the past, the newspaper had already been threatened with financial cuts five times. This is the first time that this project has been formalized in a budget, beyond informal discussions. In 2016, several parliamentarians, some of whom are veterans, mobilized to preserve the Stars and Stripes . It is on this today that the hopes of the latter rest: the elected officials have until the autumn to propose their own version of the budget for 2021, which could estimate that the 15 million of the newspaper must be maintained.

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