US soldier Sgt. John Hubbuch of Versailles, Ky., one of the members of NATO led-peacekeeping forces in Bosnia reads Stars and Stripes newspaper on Sunday Feb. 14, 1999.
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The Defense Department has begun to exert greater control over Stars and Stripes, weeks after a top spokesman accused the independent military newspaper of focusing on “woke distractions.”
The Pentagon announced what it calls “modernization” changes this week, in a memo dated March 9 and effective immediately, according to a copy seen by NPR and first reported by Stars and Stripes on Friday. It’s the latest effort by the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to apply extraordinary limits on journalists covering the agency.
The memo says that Stars and Stripes will continue to “operate with editorial independence.” However, it also says that the newspaper must immediately begin implementing the Defense Department’s new interim policies and stop publishing several types of content.
It also declares that the publication’s content “must be consistent with good order and discipline,” which is a phrase used in military justice.
Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin told NPR on Saturday that this phrase makes him particularly concerned for his staff reporters who are members of the U.S. military, and who thus can be court-martialed for violations of its uniform code of military justice.
“If they were to complete a story that the Defense Department did not like, and did not find ‘consistent with good order and discipline,’ would they be in legal jeopardy?” Slavin said. “We don’t know the answer to that.”
Pentagon says newspaper will be ‘by the warfighter and for the warfighter’
This new memo comes weeks after the Pentagon publicly criticized Stars and Stripes and promised an overhaul of the publication.
“We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell wrote in a Jan. 15 post on X.
In an emailed statement on Saturday, Parnell told NPR that the Defense Department “is returning [Stars and Stripes] to its original mission: an independent news source for service members stationed overseas that is by the warfighter and for the warfighter.” Parnell added that the changes mean the newspaper “will evolve” in order “to meet industry trends and changes in how new generations of service members consume media.”
Slavin told NPR that the Defense Department had not responded to his efforts to communicate with them since that post, and the Pentagon did not send his newspaper the new memo directly — it only issued a statement for his newspaper’s article about it.. (The memo said a copy would be sent to Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer; Slavin told NPR Lederer did not receive a copy.)
Slavin said he only found out about the memo on Thursday, three days after it was issued, after one of his staffers found it on a Defense Department website.
Stars and Stripes has served the U.S. military independently for decades
The newspaper’s staff will be meeting Monday morning to figure out how to comply with the memo.
Slavin expresses concern over Pentagon’s attempt to control Stars and Stripes
Slavin voiced deep concern for the staff and readership of Stars and Stripes regarding a memo that restricts news sources and directs the publication to focus on official public relations stories.
Stars and Stripes has a long history of covering the U.S. military, dating back to the Civil War and continuously publishing since World War II. While owned by the Defense Department, it operates independently thanks to a Congressional mandate established in the 1990s.
However, recent actions by the Trump administration and the Pentagon have raised questions about maintaining this independence. The Defense Department withdrew a federal regulation supporting the mandate in January, and a new memo now requires the newspaper’s ombudsman to route information meant for Congress through the Department of Defense first.
Trump administration’s increasing control over media
Stars and Stripes has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, including from President Trump. Despite threats to shut it down in 2020, Trump intervened, recognizing the newspaper’s value to the military community.
Currently, Trump and his allies are seeking greater control over various media outlets. The Defense Department, under Hegseth’s leadership, has been particularly aggressive in this regard, unveiling policies that restrict media access unless formally approved by defense officials.
Press freedom advocates have criticized the Pentagon’s latest actions, emphasizing the importance of Stars and Stripes’ independent reporting for service members and military families.
Impact of Pentagon’s memo on Stars and Stripes
The new memo is expected to significantly limit Stars and Stripes’ ability to cover daily news, including updates from war zones like Iran. Restrictions on publishing stories from wire services will also affect coverage of major events like March Madness and other popular news topics.
Slavin notes that the newspaper will need to find alternative sources of information to compensate for the limitations imposed by the memo.
following sentence:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Revised sentence: The fast brown fox leaped over the sluggish dog.
