The Pentagon is facing pushback after announcing plans to overhaul Stars and Stripes, the independent military newspaper that serves U.S. troops worldwide.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday the Defense Department will “modernize” Stars and Stripes and “refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”
Parnell also pointed to specific changes, writing that the paper would move away from “repurposed DC gossip columns” and eliminate wire copy, including Associated Press and Reuters material that the publication has long used alongside original reporting.
Stars and Stripes staff members said they had not received direct guidance about the announced changes and were caught off guard by the public statement, according to reporting by Stars and Stripes and The Associated Press.
The announcement quickly drew criticism from First Amendment groups. Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, said the Pentagon was attempting to convert an independent newsroom into a political instrument. “The Pentagon is trying to turn this independent newsroom into a mouthpiece for the administration’s political messaging,” Richardson said. “This action tramples both the First Amendment and the congressional mandate that the publication remain editorially independent.”
Stars and Stripes operates within the Defense Department’s media structure and receives partial Pentagon support for overseas distribution, but Congress has repeatedly affirmed that the publication must function as an independent news organization governed by First Amendment principles. Defense Department policy has also described Stars and Stripes as operating “without news management or censorship,” a distinction that separates it from command information outlets.
So this is illegal. Stars & Stripes is protected from Pentagon interference by law. I know. I was a Stripes reporter for three years. I’m available for comment. https://t.co/cwaAoTKAqx
— Kevin Baron (@DefenseBaron) January 15, 2026
The AP reported that the Pentagon’s plan, as described in public statements and in accounts attributed to Defense officials, would further reduce reliance on independent newsgathering. Among the ideas circulated, according to the AP, are shifting a significant portion of content to Pentagon-produced material and having active-duty service members generate all articles, moves that current civilian staff and the outlet’s internal watchdog have warned could damage credibility with troops who rely on the paper for straightforward reporting.
Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman, criticized the plan as an attempt to impose unnecessary control and create the appearance of propaganda, Stars and Stripes reported. The Washington Post also reported that the Pentagon eliminated a federal regulation that had governed aspects of Stars and Stripes, adding to concerns among journalists and lawmakers about how the department intends to handle editorial decisions going forward.
Stars and Stripes has described its mission as providing independent journalism to service members and their families, particularly those stationed abroad, and the paper has often reported on issues that affect daily military life, including leadership decisions, training, readiness, quality-of-life concerns and misconduct investigations.
Parnell is a close ally of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the Pentagon described the overhaul as an effort to tailor the outlet to what it called “warfighters.” The language may be a sign of the change from independent reporting toward a message discipline driven by political priorities.
PEN America urged Congress to intervene and to enforce the legal protections that have historically insulated the publication from Pentagon control. Richardson called on lawmakers to ensure Stars and Stripes can “serve military members free from political influence.”
