Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content

"The Pentagon has released a modernization plan for Stars and Stripes that affirms the publication’s independence while expanding Defense Department oversight, introducing new restrictions on content"

Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements.

The most-crippling part of this is removing their ability to use wire services (AP, Reuters, et c).

It means they can only cover news if they send a correspondent. They cannot cover much at all that way. It basically means it’s just a company newsletter now. They don’t even have any correspondents covering the war.

"Defense Department intended to “refocus” the news organization... it “should” republish content created by the Defense Department public affairs offices with a label describing its origin"

Article makes it clear that they're banning the publication of wire services with the goal to make this publication more like a DoD PR team and less like a news source.

About a week ago Stars and Stripes had an article that strongly implied that the war with Iran had already had far more casualties than the (at the time) three KIA.

I think it was about increased blood donations in Germany.

This is wrong and rhymes with all the sabre-rattling towards news orgs from the white house over the last couple days.

It will also make the US armed forces _actively worse_ at their jobs. It won't even take very long. If you can't effectively reflect on your errors and consider non-politically-aligned points of view, your strategists are going to be running in the dark.

> The memo also bars reporters from requesting public records through the Freedom of Information Act in an official capacity and prohibits the organization from publishing “controlled unclassified information.”

If you need any evidence to refute the claim that the Pentagon's plan "affirms the publication’s independence", this is it. Talk is cheap.

Ah, the cool newspaper that fought the American propaganda of war before.

https://www.stripes.com/news/military-terminates-rendon-cont...

It was a fun story.

I'll say something positive here as a european: the amount of diverse places that I'd assume would be broadly culturally aligned with Trump that have shown some form of resistance or pretty vehement disagreement with this administration this last year, suggests to me that there is a degree of widespread (kinda bipartisan) idealism in the US that's pretty unique in the west.

> "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," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell

https://www.npr.org/2026/03/14/nx-s1-5748020/pentagon-tighte...

Did anyone seriously think that S&S was ever independant? It is the military newsletter for the US armed forces. It isnt the NYT and never will be.

It seems as if the current administration is among the total Hall of Fame of lowest IQ.

At the least they have big hands ... right?

I'm surprised they even bothered to announce this, I just assumed military propaganda would psyop.

Are they going to start inserting theocratic content too? Like when Hegseth bullied the Boy Scouts to become an organization in support of god once again?

Huh. I just watched Full Metal Jacket last night for the first time in a few years.

Remember that Hegseth recently celebrated that CNN is being taken over by a friend of the administration who will eagerly parrot their propaganda in the service of keeping the idiocracy controlled. FCC commissioner Carr threatened media licenses for firms that aren't positive enough about the Iran war (or is it a war? Special military operation?)

The US is in a bizarre place right now. The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism), from enlisting tech execs in the military, to demanding complete control over all commerce (including demanding ownership stakes), to absolute chilling control over speech. Bizarre how the same people who have been using communism as their boogieman for decades are the biggest cheerleaders.

Trump is a pathetic, demented, halfwit diddler Temu-version of Xi, and it's comical irony. It's why he's surrounded by garbage people, like the drunk tough-guy-speech-from-ChatGPT joke of a Department of SortofWar, Hegseth, the clown who only ever achieve major and is a massive embarrassment to the men and women of the armed forces. Pathetic.

Though note that the communism is only in regards to government control, corruption and self-dealing. Zero benefits for Americans, unless you're a billionaire. Americans knowingly voted for this. They willingly lined themselves up to be future Soylent Green for their plutocrat class. Biggest self-destruction in the history of mankind.

What did they expect if it was Pentagon sponsored rather than independent?

They can always post to r/WarsAndGripes.