editorial independence – The Pentagon dismissed Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jaqueline Smith, escalating a fight over whether the paper can stay editorially independent.
The Pentagon has fired a top editor at Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has long served U.S. service members both at home and overseas.
The decision—made just three months after the department said it would take control of the publication—lands in the middle of a fight over who gets to steer the paper’s editorial direction.. The case turns on a central promise Congress made decades ago: that Stars and Stripes should operate independently of military commanders.. Now. Jaqueline Smith. the ombudsman responsible for protecting that independence. says her job was taken away after she raised concerns about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s influence.
In a Thursday opinion column announcing her dismissal. Smith wrote that the Pentagon “also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes.” She said her termination came through a personnel action notice—Form DA 3434—framing it as a cold. methodical response rather than an open debate over the paper’s direction.
Smith’s account is not just personal.. It reflects the uneasy tension that arises whenever a government agency funds or houses a newsroom and then seeks tighter control over what that newsroom publishes.. Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Pentagon. and its staff includes both Defense Department employees and civilian journalists—an arrangement designed to keep the paper plugged into military life while maintaining civilian-style editorial standards.
At the center of the dispute is a Pentagon push described internally as a “refocus.” Pentagon officials have said the publication had “gone ‘woke’” and needed a reset. according to the account laid out in Smith’s column.. The language has political resonance far beyond journalism—“woke” has become a loaded term in U.S.. culture wars—yet the stakes here are more procedural and institutional: whether the paper will be treated like a traditional military communications tool or like a newsroom with protected editorial autonomy.
Smith argues that Congress anticipated precisely this kind of pressure.. She points to a 1991 creation of the ombudsman role and to decades-old Congressional language requiring editorial independence.. In recent months, she said she raised concerns to the House and Senate Armed Services committees about attempted Pentagon control.. A pair of Democratic senators—Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal—also weighed in publicly. urging the Pentagon to rescind the “refocus” policy and arguing it threatens credibility and contradicts reforms meant to prevent censorship.
That dispute is likely to matter beyond Stars and Stripes itself.. For many service members and veterans. the paper functions as a rare outlet produced with official proximity to military operations but intended to reflect journalistic norms rather than command priorities.. When editorial independence becomes contested. it can alter how readers interpret every headline—turning even straightforward reporting into something that feels politically managed.
And the Pentagon’s broader approach to the press has already been moving in a direction that alarms major newsrooms.. During President Trump’s second administration. Defense officials created conditions that limited Pentagon press access to journalists willing to agree not to report information not cleared by the department. including unclassified material.. Some news organizations—including conservative outlets—declined to accept the terms and surrendered their credentials.. A judge later ordered the Defense Department to restore press access after The New York Times sued.
Misryoum sees a pattern here: policy changes aimed at “alignment” or “refocusing” can quickly become tests of constitutional and statutory expectations around press freedom—even when applied to outlets that are government-funded.. If Stars and Stripes is treated as an instrument to enforce a particular worldview. the practical consequence is straightforward: fewer readers trust the reporting. and fewer journalists feel safe calling attention to problems.
The immediate question now is whether the Pentagon will answer the lawmakers who asked for changes and whether Congress will apply pressure through oversight if the independence mandate is further weakened.. For Smith. her message is blunt: she believes the department is trying to silence the person Congress tasked with monitoring editorial independence.. For service members. the outcome may be felt in a quieter place—the confidence they bring to the news they read while serving and after they return home.