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A paper with a 165-year history of editorial independence is now receiving orders from the Pentagon about the direction it should take.
Stars and Stripes, founded during the Civil War and published continuously since World War II, has long served the U.S. military community under First Amendment protections granted by Congress while receiving Pentagon funding.
That independence now appears under strain after Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, posted a statement on X that suggested the paper would “refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale.”
Currently, the paper operates as a modern multimedia outlet, featuring a website, active social media channels, several podcasts, and a print edition distributed to troops around the world from Monday to Friday.
“No more repurposed D.C. gossip columns,” Parnell continued.
Shortly after the statement was posted, Stars and Stripes’ journalist, Corey Dickstein, reported that “the Pentagon suggested Thursday it would take over content decision-making” of the paper, highlighting that the statement “appears to challenge” the historic editorial independence of Stars and Stripes.
The paper has long prized that independence, even publishing criticism of military bureaucracy during World War II—a rarity for a wartime outlet. During the Vietnam War, it reported on race relations and dissent within the ranks, often despite Pentagon pressure.
Parnell’s statement comes after a Washington Post inquiry found that applicants to the newspaper, which reaches an audience of around 1.4 million, were asked how they would “advance” President Donald Trump’s policy priorities and implement them when hired.
Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman, whose congressionally mandated role focuses on maintaining editorial independence, called the move “antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission,” and noted that the Office of Personnel Management, not the newspaper’s leadership, added the questions.
In August, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) reported that the paper was trying not to “draw attention” to itself as the second Trump administration began.
Rebecca Holland, a former Italy-based reporter for Stars and Stripes, told CJR that a public affairs officer contacted her and instructed her that she could no longer visit a base in Vicenza, Italy, after she published an article about an Army mentorship group for female paratroopers, which had recently opened to male participation following the Trump administration’s restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at the base.
Such instructions are surprising for a paper that, in 2010, won a prestigious George Polk Award for its reporting on the Defense Department’s use of a public relations firm to steer coverage of the war in Afghanistan in its favor.
Stars and Stripes publisher and CEO Max Lederer, who has maintained that the paper is “very, very neutral,” told CJR that there is “always that possibility” it could be turned into a military mouthpiece, but he was more concerned about the paper’s funding from the Pentagon, which was threatened under Trump’s first administration.
In 2020, the Pentagon cut $15.5 million in funding for the paper and ordered its publication to cease, despite objections from members of Congress who feared such action would constitute an attack on press freedom.
The decision was halted by Trump—then serving his first term as president—who tweeted, “The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to Stars and Stripes magazine under my watch,” and called the publication a “wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”
After the second Trump administration began, the paper announced in August that it would be adopting Core Values, which aligned with a national initiative of the Center for Integrity in News Reporting of “restoring trust through impartial, objective, and fair reporting.”
“I felt we need to make sure our audience knows what we stand for,” Lederer told host Mike Blinder in the vodcast E&P Reports about his decision to highlight the Core Values of the publication.
Nearly two months later, the self-declared Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, confiscated the badges of Pentagon reporters from news organizations across the political spectrum after they refused to comply with new guidelines restricting journalists from any “unauthorized disclosure” of information, including material that might be unflattering to the Pentagon.
Lederer said that although the guidelines were not given to his publication to sign, as Stars and Stripes operates as a government entity, the publication was “not comfortable with its provisions,” and a decision was made to move Pentagon staff back to the Washington, D.C., office where the paper is headquartered.
“The Department of War, under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, is continuing to revitalize, restore, and modernize,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told The Daily Wire, highlighting that the announced changes to be made to Stars and Stripes are the “latest example” of this effort.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense and Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief, for comment.