She tried to preserve military newspaper’s editorial independence. Now she’s losing her job
The Pentagon has fired a top editor at Stars and Stripes, the newspaper for U.S. service members at home and abroad, after she complained about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s interference with the publication’s editorial independence.
Ombudsman Jaqueline Smith lost her job three months after the Pentagon announced it was taking control of Stars and Stripes, even though Congress mandated decades ago that it operate independently of military commanders.
Defense Department officials said the publication had gone “woke” and needed a “refocus.” Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Pentagon, and its staff is made up of Defense Department employees and civilian journalists.
From speaking out to losing her job
Smith announced her dismissal in an opinion column posted Thursday.
“Apparently, the Pentagon also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes,” she wrote. “They fired me.”
Smith has been speaking out publicly and in her column since the Pentagon asserted control over the publication in January.
Earlier this month, she wrote a column urging readers to speak out against the “refocus” and to demand that Stars and Stripes maintain its independence.
“Your help is urgently needed to keep Stars and Stripes operating as an independent news source that adheres to journalistic principles and ethics,” Smith wrote. “Your help is needed for Stripes to continue providing fair, accurate and unbiased news for those who are serving our country and our veterans. They deserve nothing less than the unfiltered truth.”
Now, she says, “The Pentagon is trying to silence me.”
“No one should be surprised that they’re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence,” Smith wrote, saying her firing happened “in the coldest way possible” — through issuance of Form DA 3434, “Notification of Personnel Action – Nonappropriated Funds Employee.”
Truth, not propaganda
The Pentagon’s effort to take control of the Stars and Stripes runs counter to a long-held interest in ensuring that service members receive fact-based news, not propaganda.
Smith notes the belief in her latest opinion, saying Congress mandated the Stars and Stripes be “editorially independent” and created the ombudsman’s position in 1991 to monitor the work at the publisher.
“I have told the House and Senate Armed Services committees in recent months of my great and growing concern about attempted control of the newspaper by the Pentagon,” Smith wrote.
She said several lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., agreed with her and sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg.
“DoD’s new policy threatens the credibility of Stars and Stripes, and the reliable flow of unbiased news to service members, and contradicts decades of Congressional reforms that guard against censorship at the paper,” the senators wrote.
The senators urged the department to rescind the new “refocus” policy.
To Smith’s knowledge, Feinberg has not replied.
Other attempts at limiting the press
The Pentagon has fostered an adversarial relationship with the news media during Trump’s second administration.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restricted press access at the Pentagon only to journalists who agreed not to report any information that had not been cleared by the department, including unclassified materials.
Major news organizations, including conservative outlets such as Fox News, refused to agree to the new policy and surrendered their Pentagon press credentials. After The New York Times sued over the policy, a judge ordered the Defense Department to restore press access.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
