A Pentagon cost-cutting move that will relocate the staff of Stars and Stripes to the military’s public affairs headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., has raised concerns of journalists and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Levin penned a letter the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week asking him to review the decision and questioning what the Defense Dept. will do to “ensure the actual and perceived independence of the important service provided by Stars and Stripes is preserved.”
The paper is independent but backed by $20M a year from the U.S. Congress, where it has strong support.
Mel Russell, who heads the Defense Media Activity at Fort Meade 30 miles outside of Washington, D.C., has issued a directive ordering the move by Sept. 28 to save $1M in office space Stars & Stripes spends on its National Press Club base of operations.
Russell says he can’t justify to the General Services Administration in a time of budget cuts that there is no government-owned alternative available to its current commercial space.
Terry Leonard, editor of Stars and Stripes is lobbying Congress to fight the move.
“Proving to your readers that you’re independent is difficult enough in the private, commercial press,” wrote S&S ombudsman Ernie Gates March 2 in urging a more thorough review of such a move. “Stripes starts from an even tougher spot.”
Pentagon officials have said the relocation will not affect the paper’s operations.
Outgoing Defense public affairs chief Doug Wilson told the New York Times it’s a matter of costs “in an era when the entire department is having to find efficiencies.”
The Pentagon, responding to a 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission report, in 2008 consolidated its communications apparatus at the DMA at Fort Meade, a 2,000-staffer operation with a budget of about $225M a year.