President Trump reversed course Friday and announced that his administration would not eliminate funding for Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has been keeping troops informed since the Civil War. The president’s retreat came as a flurry of news reports were blaming him for the Pentagon’s proposed budget cuts. It also came as the White House was furiously trying to deny a report in the Atlantic — quickly matched by other outlets, including Fox News — that Trump had made disparaging comments about American soldiers killed in battle.
So it was obviously in the president’s political interest to preserve a publication that is often the only source of independent news for troops in war zones. It otherwise was set to cease print and online publication by Sept. 30 under Trump’s Defense Department budget, which would have saved $15.5 million out of a $700 billion spending plan.
“The United States of America will not be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump tweeted Friday. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”
Stars and Stripes had its bipartisan defenders on Capitol Hill. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a former Air Force lawyer, said, “as a veteran who has served overseas,” he knew the value it brought to readers. The importance of its print publication is magnified in areas such as Afghanistan and Iraq where internet access is limited. It also reports on an array of issues of particular interest to military personnel and their families.
“Stars and Stripes is an essential part of our nation’s freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with defending that freedom,” 11 U.S. senators said in a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper before Trump withdrew the proposed funding cut.
The strength of its credibility — editorial independence, a willingness to publish stories and showcase views that contradict the official line — has made it a source of irritation for administrations even before the Trump era. President Barack Obama’s administration had proposed cuts to the publication’s budget.
Yet the latest tug-of-war over Stars and Stripes funding comes at a particularly precarious moment for government-funded independent journalism. Michael Pack, Trump’s newly confirmed appointee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media, wasted no time in wreaking havoc on one of its signature outlets, Voice of America — an outlet the president has called “disgusting.” Pack is a close ally of Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign strategist and White House adviser who was recently charged with fraud for allegedly diverting funds to personal expenses from the nonprofit “We Build the Wall” campaign.
Pack fired four of the top officials of those agencies and replaced their bipartisan board members with political appointees. The remaining leaders of Voice of America resigned in protest. Pack has said one of his goals is to “deal with these issues” of perceived bias, an ominous warning from a conservative filmmaker.
He also drew the ire of a group of Voice of America journalists by suggesting the outlet was “a great place to be a foreign spy,” a comment that could endanger their safety. One of the serious challenges for all American journalists in hostile areas of the world is the suspicion that they may be doing clandestine work for their government.
U.S. interests are served when our troops are kept informed with the news and when citizens of totalitarian nations can witness an American commitment to a free press. These outlets must not be silenced or turned into propaganda machines.
