Much worse than advertised. The information revealed by the Wall Street Journal 10 February was far below the reality that the US Department of Defense (DoD) does not want to halve the newspaper's budget Stars and Stripes but he wants to suppress it completely!
Stars and Stripes, the independent newspaper for the military, which has been published since 1861, would lose all its federal funding in 2021, or $15.5 million, he confirmed in his columns.
"We've basically decided to enter the modern era where newspapers are probably not the best way to communicate anymore" said Elaine McCusker, deputy assistant secretary of defense for U.S. journalists monday, February 10 at the Pentagon for a briefing on the DoD's 2021 budget.
To which Ernie Gates, the newspaper's ombudsman, responded in a tweet: "The mission of Stars and Stripes is not to communicate the DoD or the command message, but to be an independent publication of the First Amendment that serves the troops - especially deployed troops. Therefore, its 'we have to communicate' is missing the mission".
To date, the Stars and Stripes ("stars and stripes" designating the U.S. flag) received approximately $8.7 million per year in operations and maintenance funds from the DoD and approximately $6.9 million in contingency operations funds to support reporting in the field such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
The newspaper is also financed for an equivalent amount through advertising, issue sales and subscriptions to various paper and digital media.
One hope for the newspaper, however, is that the Defense Department's budget has yet to be approved by Congress.
In 2019, the newspaper was printed and distributed in more than 7 million copies for the weekly U.S. edition and more than 4 million copies for special publications in the U.S. and abroad.
Thanks for spreading the word. Stars and Stripes' mission is not to communicate the DoD or command message, but to be an independent, First Amendment publication that serves the troops -- especially deployed troops. So her 'we communicate' misses the mission.
- Stripes Ombudsman (@StripesOmbudsm1) February 10, 2020
