#jacqueline smith

According to a Thursday op-ed, the Pentagon fired the ombudsman for Stars and Stripes, the independent military newspaper, after she consistently warned of “attempted control” over the paper.

The former ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, was tasked with safeguarding the outlet’s editorial autonomy.

“Apparently, the Pentagon also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes. They fired me,” Smith wrote in her op-ed published by the paper.

Oliver Willis at Daily Kos:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has purged the independent ombudsman for the Pentagon’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes, after she dared to criticize the Trump administration.  The purge is the latest in a series of firings from Hegseth centered on loyalty to President Donald Trump. Jacqueline Smith revealed that she had been let go in her final column for the newspaper, which was published 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 noted that her firing comes after Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced in January that the administration would be changing the editorial focus of the paper to align with Hegseth and Trump’s vision. 

“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale,” Parnell wrote on X at the time. Smith has written columns criticizing the policy and advocated for the continued independence of the paper, which has been published for more than 160 years and through multiple wars. [...]

Earlier this month, a coalition of Democratic senators—Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, and Mark Kelly of Arizona—wrote to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg expressing concerns about perverting Stars and Stripes from its core mission. “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 guarded against censorship at the paper,” they wrote. “We urge you to immediately rescind DoD’s new policy and restore editorial independence guaranteed by the First Amendment to Stars and Stripes.” Smith’s firing shows that Hegseth intends to continue silencing voices of dissent.

Cookie Monster will eat anything, but he draws the line at sardine ice cream and bugs.

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