Ombudsman columns

• Ombudsman

  Scorecard: Stripes election coverage rises to meet 5 milestone moments

  Like boulders that disrupt a rushing stream, sometimes big moments show how a newsroom handles the racing current of news.

  14:57 October 5, 2012
• 

  Ombudsman

  Highlighting impending 'grim milestone' in Afghanistan War was not insensitive

  Last week the Pentagon’s top public affairs voice spoke out strongly in objection to a Stars and Stripes front page, both publicly and in direct internal messages to Stripes’ editors. Let’s take a closer look at that front page, at the objection and even at the communications process.

  14:54 September 7, 2012

• Ombudsman

  Election coverage meeting challenge so far

  Now that the Olympics are over, we can all turn our attention to the next big contest: the presidential election. Before the election begins to truly dominate the news, though, it’s time to update my scorecard of how Stars and Stripes has so far met its obligation to provide readers with thorough and fair political coverage, including a broad spectrum of opinions.

  14:43 August 17, 2012

• OMBUDSMAN

  Downrange troops of all ranks count on Stripes’ independence

  On a listening tour to U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf, my appreciation for Stars and Stripes deepened — a reflection of what I heard from troops who rely on it every day, in every service, at every rank.

  14:38 August 3, 2012

• Ombudsman

  Stars and Stripes should move, but not to Fort Meade

  Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says it’s too late this year to move Stars and Stripes’ independent news operation to the home of Pentagon-controlled public affairs at Fort Meade, Md. But he wants to see it happen next year.

  14:29 July 12, 2012
• Assessing Stripes’ coverage, relative to Romney and Obama
• When war reporting becomes crime reporting
• Impartiality doesn’t require living in a bubble
• You be the editor: Would you run photos of US troops toying with Taliban corpses?
• Find space to preserve Stripes’ independence
• Readers conversation begins with focus group of one
• How a 5-year-old story becomes today's 'Most Read'
• Beyond 'Doonesbury': Balance about more than the comics
• What’s so funny about the funny pages?
• On scorecard, photo choices don’t add up to bias
• Don’t put Stripes with military media at Fort Meade
• Working to connect with Stripes readers

• Ernie Gates, ombudsman

  Signed Defense bill blocks Stripes’ newsroom move to Fort Meade

  In the defense bill signed by President Obama this week, Congress stipulated the 'preservation of editorial independence of Stars and Stripes.'

  18:32 January 4, 2013
• Nothing sinister in why Stripes spiked that Dempsey-Ward story October 12, 2012
• Election Scorecard: Has Stripes played fair in 5 big moments in the presidential campaign? October 6, 2012
• Column preview: ‘Grim milestone’ graphic wasn’t insensitive September 7, 2012
• Column preview: Summer scorecard on campaign coverage August 17, 2012