Pentagon to ‘Refocus’ Military Newspaper Stars & Stripes ‘Away from Woke Distractions’

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell announced on Thursday that the military newspaper Stars and Stripes will be going through some changes, including moving “away from woke distractions.”

“The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters,” Parnell wrote in a statement posted to X. “We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. 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.”

Parnell said the news outlet will focus on “warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.” He added there will be no more “reprints” from the Associated Press or “repurposed DC gossip columns.”

“Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members. The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy,” Parnell wrote.

In Stars and Stripes’ coverage of the coming changes, they wrote that Parnell’s statement “appears to challenge the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes.”

“The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin told staffers in a note on Thursday. “We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

Jacqueline Smith, Stars and Stripes’ ombudsman, pushed back on some of the changes reportedly coming to the paper, saying they would give off the “perception of propaganda.”

The paper’s content will be entirely written by active-duty service members, moving away from any current civilian staff, according to The Daily Wire, citing Defense Department officials.

The paper will also reportedly be 50% covered by “War Department-generated materials, including digital or print materials made by War Department writers and images captured by combat cameras.”

“That is public relations, not independent journalism,” Smith said. “The other ‘fifty percent’ of the content would hold no credibility.”

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