Pentagon to Control, Remake Stars and Stripes

The Pentagon said Thursday it plans to take over and remake Stars and Stripes, the storied military newspaper that's served the troops for decades with its news coverage, congressionally protected independence, and Bill Mauldin cartoons. In a post Thursday on X, the Washington Post reports, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the Defense Department will return the outlet to "its original mission: reporting for our warfighters" and strip out what he called "woke distractions." He pledged to end publication of "repurposed DC gossip columns"; the publisher answered, "We don't carry any gossip columns," per the New York Times.

The Trump administration also moved to scrap a federal regulation governing Stars and Stripes, telling the Federal Register that the rule is unnecessary and has no impact on the public. A Defense Department spokesperson shared Parnell's statement but did not address how the new approach would square with the newspaper's longstanding editorial autonomy, per the Post; Stars and Stripes published continuously since 1942. Editor in Chief Erik Slavin told the staff Thursday in an internal email that Parnell's announcement was "as much a surprise to me as it is to you," and pledged to work to preserve Stars and Stripes as an independent news source for the military community.

Parnell said Stars and Stripes will be tailored to service members and focus on "warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and all things military" and would no longer include AP material. On Wednesday, the Post reported that applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes are now being asked, "How would you advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?" That also was news to the people in charge of the paper. On its website, Stars and Stripes describes its core values: "A news organization must not just cover the news but uncover it. It must follow the story wherever it leads, without allowing preconceived ideas to filter the search for facts or replace the discipline of verification."