The Defense Department said Thursday that it will overhaul Stars and Stripes, the independent Pentagon-funded newspaper covering the U.S. military, to "refocus its content."
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced on X that the publication will return “to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.”
“We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century,” Parnell said. “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.”
“No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints,” he added.
The move comes after The Washington Post reported that job applicants to the military newspaper have recently been asked: "How would you advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?"
Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin told NBC News in an email Thursday night that the newspaper "does not ask questions about policy support during job interviews."
He said the question about policy priorities "is being asked of all federal job applicants and was added to the USA Jobs platform by the Office of Personnel Management." Slavin said Stars and Stripes was not notified that the question had been added to its applications.
"The people who swear to defend the Constitution have earned the right to enjoy its benefits, including access to a free and independent press," he added. "The cost of housing for soldiers living in Poland, morale in Germany, conditions aboard ships and even high school sports at schools on military bases — there is a breadth of coverage provided by Stars and Stripes that no other news organization produces on a daily basis."
With a history dating to 1861, Stars and Stripes has been independent editorially and “congressionally mandated to be governed by First Amendment principles,” according to the newspaper.
