Stars and Stripes, the military’s newspaper, is being directed to publish material from Pentagon public affairs.Alex Wong/Getty
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon has come up with a plan to limit the independence of Stars and Stripes, the news publication for members of the US military that has been published continuously since World War II.
Under the new policy, Stars and Stripes, which has historically operated with a large degree of editorial freedom, reports that it will generally be blocked from carrying news stories from wire services like the Associated Press, as well as from publishing comics. It is also being directed to publish material from the Defense Department’s own public affairs offices.
The memo is part of a broader pattern of the Pentagon under Hegseth trying to shape and limit the amount of information the public receives about US military operations. It comes as the Trump administration wages an unpopular war in Iran that has sent oil prices soaring.
The “interim” requirements for Stars and Stripes are included in an eight-page memo that is dated March 9. The news outlet was not notified about the memo. Instead, a staff member at the publication found the memo on DoD’s website. Stars and Stripes reported on Friday that the document was written without any input from the publication.
The memo follows a January post on X from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announcing that DoD was planning to “refocus” the content of Stars and Stripes “away from woke distractions that syphon morale.” The newspaper, which receives much of its funding from the Pentagon, would also shift to being a digital-only outlet, which would bring to an end to its more than 80 years in print. (The paper was first published by Union soldiers during the Civil War and later revived.)
Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin told NPR that he was especially concerned about a requirement in the memo that the publication’s articles “must be consistent with good order and discipline.” That phrase comes from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the foundation of US military law.
“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 in the interview with NPR. “We don’t know the answer to that.”
The paper’s ombudsman Jacqueline Smith, who is tasked by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence, said in an interview with the Washington Post that the memo “threatens Stars and Stripes’ continued editorial independence, and it does so at the detriment of the troops who rely on the newspaper for complete coverage and continued accurate coverage that is not propaganda.”
The memo also states that Stars and Stripes “should” republish content from the DoD’s public affairs offices, which would be labeled as coming from the Pentagon rather than Stars and Stripes‘ own reporters. Slavin, the editor-in-chief, said he has “no plans to commingle military public relations offerings with our independent reporting.”
In a further effort to kneecap the paper’s reporting, the memo bars reporters at Stars and Stripes from submitting Freedom of Information Act requests on behalf of the publication. Stars and Stripes reporters are also prohibited from publishing “controlled unclassified information.” A related push to restrict the work of reporters at other outlets led to dozens of members of the Pentagon press corps turning in their press badges last year.
