The Pentagon's New Watchdog

A Q&A with Stars and Stripes senior managing editor Howard Witt. Witt was a civil rights reporter in Houston and a foreign correspondent in Russia and South Africa. He was a Pulitzer finalist last year for reporting on racial tensions in Deep South towns, known as the "Jena 6" story. Stars and Stripes' first edition appeared during the Civil War. Peaking at 1 million circulation in World War II, it now hovers at 100,000. Five editions are published daily. That includes some 52,000 copies produced in Iraq, where local contractors have been killed trying to deliver the paper. Chartered by Congress, Stars and Stripes receives one-third of its $50 million operating budget from federal funding through the Department of Defense. Witt says, "We deeply honor the audience that we're serving. It's a sacred mission because, in many cases, we're their only source of news. But you don't do that by feeding the troops pablum and feel-good stories. Reporters at Stars and Stripes are now blossoming and doing amazing stories they never did before. It's all about making this newspaper aggressive. We won't be ignored anymore."