Defense

Pentagon response to Stars and Stripes oversight renews fears over outlet’s independence

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/14/26 6:00 AM ET

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by Rebecca Beitsch - 05/14/26 6:00 AM ET

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A letter from the Department of Defense outlining their policies for Stars and Stripes is renewing concerns from Senate Democrats over whether the outlet will remain independent under the Trump administration.

An April letter from DOD obtained by The Hill was penned the same day the Pentagon fired the outlet’s ombudsman, the person meant to monitor the outlet’s editorial independence and report concerns to Congress.

In a letter to lawmakers, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Stars and Stripes must operate within the parameters of March guidelines mandating content be “in support of good order and discipline of the military.”

He also said the publication must deliver content “that is not usually covered by commercial media,” a nod to a decision earlier this year to bar the paper from publishing cartoons and stories from other news outlets.

“Stripes will remain editorially independent of the U.S. military chain of command, military political affairs activities, or other internal influences, and without censorship and propaganda,” Parnell wrote in the letter.

“However, Stripes must still operate as a fiscally sound and efficient business enterprise that is fully accountable to department leadership for transforming itself to best serve today’s U.S. military community.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who initially questioned the Pentagon over the matter with other colleagues, said the letter offered repeated indications the Pentagon is not living up to its pledge to let the newspaper operate independently.

“While America is at war, the Trump administration is hellbent on silencing our key military newspaper and attacking service members’ access to the free press. Every American should be concerned about this blatant censorship,” she said in a statement.

The letter declined to directly answer whether DOD has sought to withhold any stories from publication.

“The language concerning good order and discipline has not led to any Stripes articles being withheld from publication,” Parnell wrote.

Stars and Stripes has been editorially independent from Defense Department officials since a congressional mandate in the 1990s. The outlet’s initial mission statement states that it is “governed by the principles of the First Amendment,” though the March memo mandating a new era for the publication made no reference to constitutional press freedoms.

Since January, the Pentagon has been chipping away at the news organization’s independence, with Parnell tweeting that month that it would return the outlet to its original mission and “refocus its content away from woke distractions.”

The Pentagon laid out a memo requiring the “modernization” of Stars and Stripes in March, replacing a framework put in place in 1994.

Parnell’s letter to Warren defended stripping the earlier rule, calling it “unnecessary” because it largely “related to internal management of the agency and its personnel.”

Though the March memo also mandated the formation of a new advisory group, as of late April Parnell said none had yet been formed.

Jacqueline Smith, the fired ombudsman, had been vocal in opposing the new policies.

“Apparently the Pentagon also doesn’t want you to hear from me anymore about threats to the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes. They fired me,” Smith, wrote in an op-ed published in the newspaper the day she was fired.

“As required, I have told the House and Senate Armed Services committees in recent months of my great and growing concern about attempted control of the newspaper by the Pentagon,” Smith wrote.

“No one should be surprised that they’re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence.”

The changes at Stars and Stripes come amid a series of other actions restricting Pentagon reporters under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has sought to bar certain journalists from the building and set limits on how they seek out information from government sources.

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