We’re very familiar with civilian publishers and the political slant they force on their staffs. There are many foreign governments, especially in the East who totally control their papers, not ones they own, but all papers. When I was stationed in Korea 1970-71, President Park Chung Hee would not let any Korean papers print a story he didn’t like even if the news was about one of our Air Force jets that crashed in his country.

The Department of Defense has been tarnished during the Bush Administration for developing a propaganda machine made up of retired generals and just this week stories have emerged about how the Pentagon tracks and rates reporters and favors those who publish favorable stories. An April 28 AP story reported that, “The media-military relationship is often contentious enough that the Army’s war college devoted three days this week to consider and discuss ways to improve it even though no official military doctrine exists to foster good working relationships.”

With all the corruption going on in US government, would you be surprised to learn that our government has owned a paper off and on since 1861 that is flourishing today and never has political influence controlled the editorial content? And would it surprise you even more to learn that paper is owned by our Department of Defense?

In fact it was DoD’s Stars and Stripes newspaper that first reported the ratings story, not any civilian media. S & S was developed as an independent source of news for our military stationed overseas where news is not available due to combat or isolated conditions or the host countries papers are not printed in English. During the Civil War Union soldiers using a captured newspaper plant in Bloomfield, MO, created a paper called the Stars and Stripes and printed only four editions. During WWI, the S & S was revived in 1918 and was published weekly for the doughboys of Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing.

After the war ended it stopped publishing until 24 years later in 1942 it was revived in England during WWII. During that war, S & S ended up being published in 32 separate editions and at the peak there were 25 publishing locations. A Pacific edition was launched a week after VE day in Europe. S & S has remained vibrant until today.

The About Us section of the paper’s website tells the story of how Ike kept it free of government influence so the troops could learn the unvarnished truth.

Stars and Stripes also found a special champion and protector in Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander. Eisenhower enforced a hands-off policy in regard to Stars and Stripes, routinely defending us against whatever complaints and protest ensued from material we published. World War II ended, but the command wasn’t ready to dismantle Stars and Stripes. In the end, the military instructed us to continue publishing as long as U.S. troops remained abroad. Since 1942, Stars and Stripes remains in publication without interruption. As wartime military staff began returning to the States, the newspaper began replacing them with a full-time civilian staff. Gradually they built a top-of-the-line team of professional journalists and newspaper business people, augmented by a small contingent of military journalists and managers.

Stripes reporters and photographers continued to join American troops in the field. Throughout the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, Stars and Stripes published the news. It took not only courage but also perseverance to get the news to the readers, and our staff proved equal to the task over and over again.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Stripes reporters have embedded with military units in Kuwait and Iraq, as well as on Navy ships in the region. Staffers are still reporting from those countries, and today a separate Middle East operation prints more than 70,000 copies of the paper and distributes them daily throughout the war zones.

Stars and Stripes is a daily newspaper published for the U.S. military, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many military publications, Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper, free of control and censorship. We have published continuously in Europe since 1942, and since 1945 in the Pacific. Today, our readers number well over 350,000. (providing newspapers in over 48 countries)

Stars and Stripes is a Department of Defense-authorized daily newspaper distributed overseas for the U.S. military community. Editorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command, it provides commercially available U.S. and world news and objective staff-produced stories relevant to the military community in a balanced, fair, and accurate manner. By keeping its audience informed, Stars and Stripes enhances military readiness and better enables U.S. military personnel and their families stationed overseas to exercise their responsibilities of citizenship.

-Revised DoD Directive 5122.11

As a public affairs officer serving eight years in Japan, one in Korea and three in Germany, I can attest to the fact that none of my commanders no matter how mad they got, could ever influence what S & S printed even when they yelled over the phone at the Colonel in charge of the paper. From the stories I have seen printed during the reign of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld, I don’t think they were able to violate regulations and exert political influence either.

So, with quality leaders like George Marshall and Gen. Eisenhower and clear regulations prohibiting influence it is possible for the government to publish a paper free of political influence. Amazing, but true.

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