Pentagon plan 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 and transitioning away from a print publication.

An eight-page memo, dated March 9 and effective immediately, limits the use of wire services, bars comics and other syndicated features and states that content must be consistent with “good order and discipline,” a phrase borrowed from the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The memo is the first formal explanation since Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell said in a Jan. 15 social media post that the Defense Department intended to “refocus” the news organization “from woke distractions that syphon morale.”

On Friday, Parnell in a statement provided the first direct comment to the organization since Jan. 15. He said the department is “returning S&S to its original mission: an independent news source for service members stationed overseas that is by the warfighter and for the warfighter.”

Parnell said the effort includes “a transition from print to digital, transition to uniformed staff at locations outside the continental U.S., and other efficiency measures that will eliminate redundancies and ensure smart use of DOW resources.”

Stars and Stripes staff currently includes service members on one- to three-year assignments who are mentored by civilian journalists. The service members are typically trained by the services in public relations.

Parnell did not answer questions about how his office is coordinating with the news organization to implement these changes or if the decisions are based on any formal review or evaluation of Stars and Stripes operations.

No coordination

Stars and Stripes Publisher Max Lederer told U.S.-based staff of the memo Thursday and said he would begin meeting with the organization’s leadership to discuss implementation of the memo.

Lederer said he has not been contacted directly by anyone from the Pentagon about the changes, despite reaching out to them. The memo, which was sent to Pentagon leaders and combatant commanders, was written without Stars and Stripes’ input.

Stars and Stripes was not notified about publication of the memo, which was found during a search on a DOD website.

“It is unlikely that the Pentagon was aware of the extensive modernization that Stars and Stripes had already begun,” Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes editor in chief, said in a statement Thursday. “Over the past year, the changes to our digitally produced news and information have resulted in significant increases in pageviews, engagement and subscribers.”

Reader feedback and real-world usage drove the efforts, said Slavin, who became the organization’s top editor late last year after more than 20 years stationed with the company in Japan, Iraq, South Korea and Germany.

Business operations and funding remain largely unchanged by the memo.

‘A threat to the First Amendment’

Press freedom advocates said the memo shifts authority over content decisions in a way that risks undermining the newsroom’s independence.

“This clearly shows that the Pentagon is trying to increase its influence over content decisions at Stars and Stripes,” said Timothy Richardson, program director of journalism and disinformation for PEN America, a nonprofit that protects free expression.

“That’s a threat to the First Amendment, certainly, and the independence that the Congress has long guaranteed for the newsroom,” he said Thursday after reviewing the memo.

PEN America and five other press-freedom organizations sent a letter to Congress last month in support of Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence.

Stars and Stripes, which is owned by the Defense Department, was first published by Union troops during the Civil War and has been published continuously since World War II. The newspaper publishes print editions overseas and a U.S. weekly edition. It distributes to combat zones as needed.

Its website and other digital offerings have gained readership among troops stationed across the U.S. and among veterans.

The news organization has been threatened with closure over the years but has repeatedly garnered support from veterans and bipartisan members of Congress.

The Pentagon in January withdrew a federal regulation that underpinned the mandate set by Congress for Stars and Stripes to provide independent journalism to the military community under the principles of the First Amendment.

The new memo confirmed that Stars and Stripes’ editorial operations are “independent of the military chain of command, military public affairs activities or other external influences,” but makes no mention of First Amendment freedoms.

It moves the defense secretary’s public affairs office into an oversight role. Previous guidance gave it an administrative role to help with funding, military manning and other regulatory steps. It also calls for an advisory board of Defense Department personnel.

Content overhaul

The memo bars purchased content on the assumption that all service members overseas have online access to all commercially available news on their own. Exceptions for purchased content can be approved by Parnell, according to the memo.

Stars and Stripes uses wire services to provide more complete world coverage of interest to the military community.

Jacqueline Smith, Stars and Stripes’ ombudsman, said wire services add value because they fill gaps and make a news outlet a “one-stop shop.”

“A complete newspaper should include national sports and entertainment …,” she said. “Stripes does not have the resources to do its own reporting in those areas. Yet sports and entertainment contribute to the morale of troops.”

Losing this “will reduce the quality and breadth of information available to readers,” Slavin said.

The memo calls on Stars and Stripes to be a “‘hometown-style’ publication for the increasingly niche U.S. military community” and says it “should” republish content created by the Defense Department public affairs offices with a label describing its origin, though it grants the publisher latitude to determine whether such content serves readers’ needs.

The memo does not specify which publications should include public affairs content.

“We have no plans to commingle military public relations offerings with our independent reporting,” Slavin said. “Stars and Stripes remains committed to balanced and accurate reporting on behalf of the military community we serve.”

Other changes require the ombudsman to send information bound for Congress through the Defense Department Legislative Affairs Office.

“The House Armed Services Committee created the independent position in 1990-91 with the requirement the ombudsman report to the committee on matters of importance to maintaining Stripes editorial independence,” Smith said. “If that report must go through the Pentagon’s legislative affairs staff, then there is no assurance it would be complete and unchanged and there would be no opportunity to ask the ombudsman questions.”

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.” This label has often been used to limit the release of information under broadly defined terms.

Last year, the Pentagon asked all reporters working within the building to sign a pledge that included a similar demand. Dozens of journalists turned in their access badges, while a new group of reporters signed the agreement and replaced them.

“The obstacles that the Pentagon continues to throw in the way of credible reporting are growing, and [the memo] is another clear example of that,” Richardson said.

As plans to change the publication come together, Slavin said readers will be informed at each step.

“We will let readers, particularly print readers in remote locations and situations where unsecure internet is spotty or prohibited, know that comics, national sports, state-by-state roundups and other content may soon no longer be published due to the limits of the memo. Feedback from deployed troops tells us that this will not be a popular decision,” he said.