Laurel to the editorial staff of Stars and Stripes for uncovering a murky financial relationship between its paper and the Pentagon’s public-relations machine, and a Dart to the publishing staff for signing off on the arrangement.

First, some background. Stars and Stripes is an odd animal. Despite serving a military audience and receiving about half of its budget from the Pentagon, the paper’s civilian editorial staff bristles at suggestions that it’s anything less than editorially independent. They take pains to distinguish between “command information”—say, content on the Department of Defense Web site or the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service—and the journalism in Stripes.

So when reporter Jeff Schogol discovered a contract showing a $499,000 deal between the paper and an outside PR firm, it raised newsroom eyebrows—especially since the contract was for a controversial Pentagon program known as “America Supports You” that has been criticized as propaganda.

The digging started after David Cloud of The New York Times reported in May 2007 that the Defense Department’s inspector general had begun an inquiry into whether funds for “America Supports You” were shifted from other Pentagon programs improperly, in a way that could have avoided budget scrutiny. Stars & Stripes first reported the paper’s own involvement last October.

“My biggest concern was not, ‘Will we run this or not,’” says Executive Editor Robb Grindstaff. “It was, ‘We’ve got to get this story, get it first, and break it.’”

“America Supports You” has been dogged by controversy since its launch in the fall of 2004. The initiative is perhaps best known for its sponsorship of “Freedom Walks” across the country, which urge Americans to “support the troops” in Afghanistan and Iraq and take place each year on the Sunday closest to September 11. The program is the brainchild of Allison Barber, the...

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