April 24 (UPI) — The Department of Defense fired Stars and Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith, whose job it was to protect the military-funded news organizations’ editorial independence, without giving her a reason.
Smith was told on Thursday that her last day at the newspaper will be Tuesday and that “this action is not grievable,” she wrote in an op-ed published by Stars and Stripes.
Sean Parnell, who is the assistant to the secretary of defense and the Pentagon’s spokesman, in January announced that the department was planning to “refocus” the publication, of which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been critical.
Since the announcement, Smith said she has been concerned about Pentagon interference with Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence and potential censorship of its reporters — and written about it, as well as alerted members of Congress.
“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 in the op-ed.
“As required, 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.
The newspaper has drawn ire from officials during both of President Donald Trump’s terms in the White House. In 2020 the Defense Department attempted to eliminate the roughly $15.5 million that funds it.
The Pentagon had attempted to dissolve and end the military newspaper, which has a global print circulation of about 7 million and a widely read website, because the defense secretary thought the funding could be put to better use.
In recent months — in addition to placing increased restrictions on reporters — the Pentagon has altered the operation of Stars and Stripes, moving to strip it of legal protections to its editorial independence.
Congress in the late 1980s learned that military personnel were trying to “suppress unfavorable news” about the Iran-Contra scandal, among others, and mandated that the newspaper remain editorially independent.
Part of the mandate was the creation of the ombudsman position and for the person holding it to report to Congress about the newspaper at least once per year.
After Smith shared her concerns with Congress, members of both the House and Senate armed services committees sent letters to Hegseth that she had raised alarm about potential censorship, influence and control of the newspaper by Pentagon officials.
The most recent letter was sent on April 15, and Smith was fired six days later.
Smith said she believes that Pentagon leaders fired her in hopes that they can get around Congress by “getting rid of the outspoken present ombudsman.”
Stars and Stripes was initially founded in 1861 during the Civil War, was published regularly during World War I and has been published continuously since 1942 when it was restarted during World War II.
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