A service member deployed to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar reads Stars and Stripes between refueling F-15s and F-16s conducting combat operations against the Islamic State group over Iraq and Syria March 24, 2016. (Stars and Stripes)
Contact Jacqueline Smith at ombudsman@stripes.com
Since the Pentagon announced in mid-January its intent to “refocus” the content of Stars and Stripes, the public backlash has grown stronger and broader every day.
Thousands upon thousands of readers have spoken out, through posts on social media, emails and letters, against curtailing the newspaper’s editorial independence. Comments have come from active-duty military, veterans, their families and others. The response is gratifying.
Many also have written or called their senators and representatives to keep Stars and Stripes free from censorship and government control. Ten senators wrote to Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth calling the “refocus” a “troubling departure from the First Amendment principles that have governed the newspaper since its 1861 inception.” The House Armed Services Committee is asking questions. Because Stripes’ editorial independence is congressionally mandated, it is imperative that Congress gets involved.
This tidal wave of support was unleashed because of a statement posted on the social media site X by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Jan. 15. “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,” he wrote.
The four-paragraph statement gave no details of how that would happen. A Daily Wire story followed, quoting unnamed Pentagon officials saying 50% of the newspaper’s content would be “composed of War Department-generated materials.” No further comment has been provided to other media nor to Stars and Stripes.
I wrote a column published Jan. 20 that explained Stripes’ mission of providing unbiased news to the military community, wherever in the world troops may be. And I asked readers to express their support for an unfettered press. Some more than supported, they insisted.
A collection of social media comments in support of Stars and Stripes’ independence. (Graphic by Noga Ami-rav/Stars and Stripes)
“The minute Stars and Stripes becomes a mouth piece for propaganda from the Pentagon is the minute I cancel my subscription,” a “U.S. Navy Veteran” said in an email to me.
“OMG if the DOD takes control of the S & S, then it’ll become nothing but a MAGA propaganda piece. WE in the field, who get no other news but the S & S should get the transparent truth and facts as they relate to whatever we’re reading. That has been the way it’s been for decades and decades and should not change.
“Sadly if that happens, I’ll be forced to quit reading/subscribing to S & S. I WILL NOT watch or read lies, falsehoods, made up BS and so forth. … .
“Please do what you can not to become ‘one of them’, I wish you well,” Jeff Spencer, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, wrote in a letter to the newspaper.
A veteran named Walt emailed me: “I served in the USAF from 1962 to 1982. During that time, I was spit upon, screamed at and verbally denigrated several times even though I never did a tour in Vietnam. There were two things that kept me sane in the worst of those times. One was Stars and Stripes and the other the USO.
“I cannot relate totally how upset I feel to hear that the current administration wants to ‘un-woke’ a publication that has ALWAYS had the best interests of American soldiers, seaman and airman as its highest priority. DO NOT make it into another propaganda mouthpiece! Keep it independent and as it is, so it can serve military personnel going forward and not some politician and their misguided agendas.”
Another letter writer said: “It is clear that the intention is to turn it (Stars and Stripes) into a propaganda machine that will report only the Administration’s views of what is true and what is important to know — in other words, a public relations mouthpiece,” Maureen Hicks, Ph.D., wrote in an email to me. “What an insult this is to our military! Millions of military members and families rely on S&S to bring them content they need about the latest issues that potentially affect the military. I am horrified that our country has come to this, so very like the suppression of the free press in other dictatorships. I hope that all those who care about freedom and respect this historic news source will raise a hue and cry.”
Some took issue with Parnell’s statement on X that Stripes would “focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.”
An anonymous online comment to a story made this point: “Honest reporting on policy, leadership decisions, and quality-of-life issues is not a distraction from readiness. It supports it. … A force insulated from inconvenient facts is not more lethal or survivable, it is less prepared.”
Several noted that even if they disagree with a story, they see the value of objective reporting.
“We NEED Stars and Stripes to remain independent and put out stories that are relevant. Sometimes I will like the facts and sometimes I won’t, but that is what independent reporting looks like.” That was one of the 1,300-plus comments posted on Facebook in response to my column.
Are all comments and emails supportive? No. And I would be suppressing the truth if I didn’t mention that fact.
“I’m sorry but many many years ago you turned left in your editorials and reporting. I was in the military for 31 years and saw a drastic change. I wouldn’t read your newspaper again,” wrote a Navy veteran.
An email from someone who has been a reader since 1972: “Respectfully I offer this: The head of NPR has stated they are unbiased. The head of the BBC has stated they are unbiased. You are stating you can’t find any “Woke Distractions” in the S&S.
“‘Stunning’ and ‘stupifying’ can’t begin to describe the reaction that millions of conservatives have when reading these kind of statements,” he wrote. … “you don’t ‘see’ because you truly don’t want to see. Even if you had a conservative looking over your shoulder as you are reading the S&S, and they were pointing out to you all the woke articles to you, your reply would probably be, ‘That’s not woke, that’s blah blah blah’ (fill in the leftist euphemisms).”
Organizations such as The National Military Family Organization have expressed support for maintaining Stripes’ editorial independence.
“Proposals to shift the publication’s focus toward ‘warfighting’ and away from independent reporting on issues affecting service members and their families risk weakening trust in one of the few news organizations dedicated specifically to the military community,” Besa Pinchotti, the organization’s chief executive officer, wrote in a letter to Parnell. “Strong military institutions benefit from transparency and accountability.”
With the substantial public support via social media and letters, pleas from active duty and retired military and their families, questions from Congress, articles in newspapers across the country and around the world, one might logically wonder what the Pentagon response has been. Nothing.
Neither I nor anyone in Stars and Stripes leadership has yet to receive any communication. For now the coverage continues to be “all things military,” as always, with editorial decisions made by trained civilian journalists.
But the issue will not fade away. Please keep expressing your opinion and support for news free from government control for those in service to our country.
