The Marine Corps Times publication, like its sisters the Army Times and Air Force Times, are independent newspapers that are owned and published by media conglomerate Gannett.  There are other publications that focus on the Marines, on their employment and careers, on the working conditions of Marine service men and women, and on the issues affecting their families as well, but the sales of the Marine Corps Times outstrips them all.

The publication also dabbles in investigative journalism, and over the course of the last year or so they have run a number of articles about the inquiries underway into the activities of General Jim Amos, the current Marine Corps Commandant.  This seems to have rubbed the General the wrong way, and the Times published THIS ARTICLE yesterday questioning whether General Amos is retaliating.  An excerpt:

Marine Corps leaders have ordered the independent Marine Corps Times newspaper removed from its prominent newsstand location at base exchange stores worldwide and placed instead in areas away from checkout lines, where it is harder to find and fewer copies are available.

The move raises troubling questions about motive and closely follows a directive prohibiting commanders from using budget funds to buy Marine Corps Times and a number of other publications.

[snip]

Spokesmen for the commandant’s office would not answer questions about whether Amos or his staff were aware of or involved in the decision to relocate the newspaper, but a source with knowledge of the new directive said it was approved with the commandant’s knowledge.

“It is no secret [in the Pentagon] that the commandant does not like Marine Corps Times,” the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

And then there is a related story, HERE, concerning North Carolina Representative Walter Jones:

Frustration is building at Marine Corps headquarters over a congressman’s aggressive support for a whistle-blower who has accused the commandant’s office of abusing its authority.

Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican and member of the House Armed Services Committee, has taken an active interest in allegations the commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, took extraordinary measures to ensure Marines were punished for a video showing four scout snipers urinating on dead insurgents in Afghanistan.  Those claims, made last year by Marine attorney Maj. James Weirick, have landed at the Information Security Oversight Office, the federal agency responsible for policy and oversight of the government’s security classification system.