Pentagon tightens controls over Stars and Stripes after calling it "woke"
Source: NPR
March 14, 2026 6:18 PM ET
The Defense Department has begun to exert greater control over Stars and Stripes, weeks after a top spokesman accused the independent military newspaper of focusing on "woke distractions."
The Pentagon announced what it calls "modernization" changes this week, in a memo dated March 9 and effective immediately, according to a copy seen by NPR and first reported by Stars and Stripes on Friday. It's the latest effort by the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to apply extraordinary limits on journalists covering the agency.
The memo says that Stars and Stripes will continue to "operate with editorial independence." However, it also says that the newspaper must immediately begin implementing the Defense Department's new interim policies and stop publishing several types of content. It also declares that the publication's content "must be consistent with good order and discipline," which is a phrase used in military justice.
Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin told NPR on Saturday that this phrase makes him particularly concerned for his staff reporters who are members of the U.S. military, and who thus can be court-martialed for violations of its uniform code of military justice. "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. "We don't know the answer to that."
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/14/nx-s1-5748020/pentagon-tightens-controls-over-stars-and-stripes-after-calling-it-woke
= new reply since forum marked as read
JFC 
Stop reporting the Secretary of Defense is a drunken war criminal.
Allegedly.
Everything east of the United States is served by "Stars and Stripes," and everything west of it is served by "Pacific Stars and Stripes."
The only real problem I ever saw with either paper was their local news: those of us in "outlying communities" got to read all sorts of wonderful stuff about the bases near the Stars and Stripes offices but almost nothing about ours.
Oh...and then there was the funniest typo in the history of typos, and proof PS&S didn't care about Korea. 3d Military Intelligence Battalion had quite a few OV-1D Mohawk aircraft.
The ugliest airplane ever invented by the hand of man - the picture I just showed you does the Mohawk no justice, it's far uglier in person - they were also worn completely out by the time I enlisted. One fine evening when I was in Korea one of the engines on one of 3d MI's Mohawks blew apart shortly after takeoff. The crew punched out of the plane (the Mohawk was the only Army aircraft with ejection seats) and it crashed in a field near Pyongtaek. The PS&S reported it as crashing near Pyongyang...which is the capitol of North Korea.
