quote:
The Pentagon will rescind its order for Stars and Stripes to cease publication by Sept. 30, according to an email sent to the news organization Thursday.
The Pentagon was also working Thursday to withdraw its request that Congress not fund Stars and Stripes in fiscal year 2021, according to the email from the acting director of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity to Stars and Stripes ombudsman Ernie Gates.
The apparent decision comes nearly a week after President Donald Trump on Sept. 4 tweeted Stars and Stripes funding would not be cut “under my watch.”
In Army Col. Paul Haverstick’s email, he wrote Stars and Stripes would no longer be required to submit to the Defense Department a written shut down plan that had been due Sept. 15. That plan would have detailed how the news organization would close by Jan. 31. Haverstick, the acting DMA director who issued the original August order for Stripes’ to prepare to stop operations, wrote to Gates that he aimed to provide the new memorandum to Stars and Stripes leadership by the weekend.
“It’s good to get written assurance from the director that the shutdown memo will be rescinded,” Gates said Thursday of the reversal. “Beyond that assurance, it’s significant that Col. Haverstick called off his direction that Stripes’ publisher provide a detailed shutdown plan by next Tuesday.”
Though Stars and Stripes retains its editorial independence and is congressionally mandated to be governed by First Amendment principles, it is part of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity. The Pentagon funding, about $15.5 million, makes up roughly half of Stars and Stripes’ annual budget and is primarily used to print and distribute the newspaper to troops scattered across the globe, including in warzones such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The remainder of the newspaper’s funding comes from advertising and subscriptions.
In February, Defense Secretary Mark Esper proposed in his fiscal year 2021 budget ending federal funding for Stars and Stripes, a move the news organization’s leadership said would be fatal to the newspaper. Esper said at that time the savings would fund “higher-priority issues,” such as purchasing modern weapons.