The publisher of the Stars & Stripes today announced a sudden retirement, telling staff his philosophy of leadership and “understanding of the value and mission" of the newspaper differ in “fundamental ways” from the direction the Department of Defense wants to go in. The announcement by Max Lederer Jr. of his imminent departure comes after Capt. William Urban from USN Public Affairs was assigned as a “deputy” to Lederer, raising fresh alarm about the independence of esteemed newspaper for the military, which traces its roots back to 1861 and the Civil War.
House and Senate armed services committees were notified Aug. 14 by the chair of Stripes' publisher's advisory board of the navy captain's unannounced appointment and that the move likely meant Lederer's termination by the Department of Defense (aka Department of War) was imminent.
“The sudden placement of a high-ranking, uniformed spokesman in this role would appear to conflict with the organization’s historic commitment to civilian leadership. Mr. Lederer, as a civilian CEO, has successfully modernized and monetized Stripes operations by using and often creating industry best practices,” wrote Rufus Friday in his message to the lawmakers. “As a result, Stars and Stripes is not regarded as house organ, but rather as a trusted provider of multimedia news and advertising that serves service members and their families all over the world. Stars and Stripes has been lauded by national organizations for its neutral and centrist content.”
The latest turmoil comes four months after the firing of the newspaper’s ombudsman, a role established by Congress to provide independent oversight and protect the paper’s editorial integrity. That action came a month after a DoD memo that asserted content restrictions and expanded Pentagon oversight of the newsroom, which is tasked with delivering independent, fact-based reporting to U.S. service members around the world, including those on the front lines of combat.
Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth has been quite transparent that he wants Stripes, which he regarded as “woke,” to become a mouthpiece to parrot the Pentagon’s talking points.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the fresh assault on Stripes comes after the newspaper had been at the forefront of detailing the conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln — reporting which angered Navy brass, the Pentagon chiefs and the White House.
Watching the destruction of another taxpayer-funded journalistic institution has me suffering from PTSD, as the game plan and its brazen execution echoes the gutting of the Voice of America, where I was a reporter for more than 20 years. VOA, also mandated by law to be objective and autonomous, is now firmly in the hands of the State Department and its few daily newscasts in a handful of languages sound like the writers spent more time in Pyongyang than Washington. VOA’s home page remains inexplicably frozen at March 15, 2025.
Some of my former VOA colleagues have been fighting in court for the proper restoration of the broadcaster, which was continuously on the air from 1941 until mid-March of last year. Likewise, lawsuits have been filed to protect Stripes.
In early June, Suki Dardarian and Bill Church, both recipients of Pulitzer Prizes and members of the Stripes publisher advisory board, represented by the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward, filed suit alleging DoD violated the Administrative Procedure Act by abruptly repealing longstanding historical regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations that protected the newspaper’s editorial freedom—doing so without required public notice-and-comment procedures. Later that month, Jacqueline Smith, the former Stripes ombudsman — a congressionally mandated position established in 1991 to monitor threats to the free flow of news to service members — also went to court, alleging wrongful termination in direct retaliation for exercising her First Amendment rights. Smith was ousted just after she published an opinion column criticizing Pentagon leadership for removing syndicated comics from the newspaper and raising alarms about government interference with the publication’s editorial independence.
It now appears that the Defense Department will be the defendant in additional legal actions as a result of the Pentagon moving to place military personnel into leadership positions inside the paper’s headquarters, violating the recognized firewall of editorial independence.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.