Three articles (1 | 2 | 3) published in Stars and Stripes recently may have seemed confusing to some. They reported, first, that the newspaper’s business side had been involved in a complicated procedure to shift money to a Defense Department program called America Supports You (ASY). It was created in 2004 to publicize nonprofit and commercial efforts to show appreciation for troops in the field. The most recent of the articles then reported that the relationship was ending, ostensibly because of some bureaucratic realignment.

If Stars and Stripes and America Supports You are both part of the DOD — in fact, both part of the same component within the department — what is the big deal? The question can also arise because, although they come at it from different directions, both the newspaper and ASY are concerned with serving the troops.

An officer in Iraq asked, in a message to the ombudsman: "Why even publish this in the first place, and who does Stars and Stripes think it is kidding?"

Well, it is a big deal.

Let’s start with the facts as they are known today. In May, The New York Times reported that the DOD inspector general’s office was performing an audit that included a look at ASY’s money handling. This and other audits had been requested routinely by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Dorrance Smith, officials have said.

Stars and Stripes news staffers wanted to know what this was all about, so they began looking into the situation. A journalistic tenet is that you go where the news leads you, even if it’s to your own organization. With some excellent legwork, reporter Jeffrey Schogol found out that the IG was also looking into Stars and Stripes’ connection to ASY. He also acquired documents showing that the paper had entered into a half-million-dollar order with a public relations company to support ASY’s efforts. The money, it turned out, had been shifted from one part of the umbrella organization under which both Stripes and ASY fall, within the DOD public affairs apparatus, to Stripes and then back again to ASY.

Stripes is a nonappropriated fund (NAF) organization, meaning it earns part of its own funding. ASY is part of an organization that is an appropriated fund (AF) entity, whose funding and spending abilities are strictly circumscribed. Whether sending money from one unit to another and then back again is administratively improper, unethical, illegal or perfectly fine is something the IG should decide. It’s a question only a bureaucrat could love.

But the arrangement has understandably roiled the editorial staff. Here’s why: The paper — thanks to an act of Congress, its own enabling directive from the DOD and repeated pronouncements from secretaries of defense going back at least to Robert McNamara — is independent journalistically. It’s explicitly protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment, guaranteeing free speech. ASY is a program that belongs to an arm of the department that has a different mission. That arm is broadly called “public affairs.” It projects and protects the image and message of the DOD.

Stripes editors — myself included when I was editorial director until earlier this year — have always been sensitive about suggestions that the editorial side was too cozy with “that other” part of the government. The fact is that some readers and even some outside journalistic groups have trouble visualizing Stripes as a totally independent news organization for the simple reason that it belongs to the government. Foreign governments have the same trouble.

We editors knew about various things Stripes’ business side did with ASY involvement, including the sale of ASY memorabilia, assistance with the annual ASY Freedom Walk and promotional advertisements. Those were seen as falling within the type of community participation programs that all newspapers create to get close to readers. Commercial papers, and Stripes, sponsor contests, concerts, marathons and other events for readers all the time.

Editors decide which such events are newsworthy, meaning they carry interest at least to an important segment of the readership, and which are not, and assign reporters accordingly. So it was with ASY. Some of the things the program did merited short stories in Stripes, and others were deemed to be not “news,” and were publicized only by the public affairs people. The decision was made on the basis of perceived interest to troops.

So far so good. What was upsetting in this situation was the transfer by Stripes, as an institution, of hundreds of thousands of dollars — albeit not its own money — to a public affairs program, and the seemingly under-the-table way it was done. Acting publisher Max Lederer and Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications, head of the umbrella organization, say they had no intention of hiding the transactions, but the perception was definitely different. Even to those of us close to the top management of Stripes, the existence of such a huge contract for public relations help to ASY was a revelation. Some could infer that Stripes had suddenly shifted its presence and influence from independent newspaper to pillar of support for the public affairs shop.

Now such relationships are coming to an end, according to Lederer, and that’s a good thing. Commercial newspapers are understood by all to have the freedom to publish freely. Stripes has to show, day in and day out, that it too deserves and enjoys that freedom. It aims to give servicemembers objective news to keep them in the nation’s informational loop. ASY aims to continually show the troops they are appreciated by the populace. Two worthy goals, best pursued separately.