UPDATED (3/31/09) Defense Secretary Gates has revised the policy on photography of flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Base. Read the Stars and Stripes report and then post your comments at the end of this column.
***
The Independent News Source
for the U.S. Military Community
for the U.S. Military Community
 |
The Right to KnowOmbudsman Mark Prendergast answers reader questions about Stars and Stripes. |
Black Hawk or Pave Hawk?
Posted February 6th, 2009 by Mark PrendergastAir Force Tech. Sgt. Adam Moore raised a question in an e-mail to me about a caption that ran with a photo in Friday (Feb. 6) editions of Stars and Stripes and on the Stripes Web site.
Column: A changing of the guard at Stripes’ ombudsman post
Posted February 4th, 2009 by Mark PrendergastGreetings.
I have been asked to succeed the incomparable Dave Mazzarella as ombudsman of
Stars and Stripes and to help protect your right to know. So by way of
introduction, let me tell you something about who I am, what I believe and how I
see the ombudsman’s job.
First, the job. By law, Stars and Stripes is to operate under the First
Amendment — free of censorship and any perversion as a vehicle for propaganda.
That means that even though it is partly financed by the government, Stars and
Stripes is to function like any other bona fide news organization and gather,
assess and present information for the benefit of its audience, not a sponsor or
patron.
Advertisement
Search this blog
About the ombudsman
Congress created the post in the early 1990’s to ensure that Stars and Stripes journalists operate with editorial independence and that Stars and Stripes readers receive a free flow of news and information without taint of censorship or propaganda.
The ombudsman, appointed to a three-year term, serves as an autonomous watchdog of Stars and Stripes’ First Amendment rights. Anyone who fears those rights are imperiled should alert the ombudsman.
The ombudsman is also the readers’ representative to the newsroom. Readers who think an issue or event was misrepresented or ignored or who feel complaints were not properly addressed by Stripes reporters or editors should contact the ombudsman.
The ombudsman can be reached via e-mail at ombudsman@stripes.osd.mil , by phone at (202) 761-0945 or by mail at 529 14th St. NW, Suite 350, Washington, DC 20045-1301.
Mark J. Prendergast has been a newspaper reporter, editor and columnist since the 1970’s and has covered conflicts in Central America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
He spent nearly 13 years as an editor at The New York Times and earlier worked for The New York Daily News, The Washington Post and The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
He holds journalism degrees from Columbia University and Ohio State University, which he attended on the G.I. Bill. Prendergast, a former Scripps Howard Visiting Professional at Ohio University, is a journalism professor at St. John’s University in New York City.
A former Army sergeant, he served with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam and the 14th ACR during the Cold War in what was then West Germany.
He succeeded Dave Mazzarella as Stripes ombudsman in January 2009.
Latest blog posts on stripes.com
- Spouse Calls
- In Our Sights
- Pacific Sportsblog
- In Our Sights
Recent Comments for The Right to Know
- Where is our ombudsman?
- I firmly believe that the
- Security Resources
- people can still be informed
- Dying Marine