Sgt. John Hubbuch of Versailles, Ky., one of the members of NATO led-peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, reads Stars and Stripes on Feb. 14, 1999. (Amel Emric/AP)
The National Military Family Association implored the Pentagon to ensure Stars and Stripes’ longstanding editorial independence is maintained in a letter sent Wednesday to the Defense Department’s top spokesman, who vowed this month to “refocus” the publication’s content.
NMFA CEO Besa Pinchotti wrote that the organization and the military families it has represented for some 57 years were “deeply concerned” about the plans Sean Parnell, the top Pentagon spokesman, outlined this month on social media. In a Jan. 15 post on X, Parnell wrote the Pentagon would overhaul Stars and Stripes and rid it of “woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”
“I urge you to reconsider any actions that would compromise the independence or core mission of Stars and Stripes,” Pinchotti wrote in the letter. “Protecting its editorial independence honors its history and ensures it can continue to serve service members and their families with integrity.”
Pinchotti said Thursday she was compelled to write to the Defense Department because the military families NMFA supports rely on independent reporting on the issues that are unique to their lives — issues Stars and Stripes has long covered such as housing, military moves and hyperlocal issues in the communities around overseas U.S. military bases.
“I don’t know that it’s even fully hit the families yet to understand the impact of this,” she said in an interview. “It’s one of those things that I think [military families] will miss when it’s not there and they’re wondering why you don’t know things, and then realize, ‘Oh, that’s where I was learning about that.’ “
“For a lot of military families, it’s not just a paper. It’s a lifeline.”
The NMFA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping U.S. military families navigate and solve “the unique challenges of military life,” according to its mission statement. For more than five decades, the organization has advocated for military families, studied the issues that impact them and, when needed, provided financial and other support for those families.
Parnell’s brief announcement about Stars and Stripes’ editorial future came as a surprise to the news organization’s leadership, who have said no one at the Pentagon has communicated with them about any potential changes. Pentagon officials have declined on multiple occasions to provide Stars and Stripes’ reporters additional details about Parnell’s plans.
His announcement also came as the Pentagon quietly removed regulations governing Stars and Stripes from the Code of Federal Regulations, leaving it operating under a 1994 Pentagon directive. The Pentagon argued the federal regulation was “unnecessary.” Jacqueline Smith, Stars and Stripes’ ombudsman, warned that the Defense Department can change the 1994 directive “on a whim.”
The House Armed Services Committee created the ombudsman position in 1991 to report to Congress on threats to the Stars and Stripes’ mission of providing independent news to the military community.
The House Armed Services Committee last week sent two bipartisan requests to the Pentagon seeking answers on how it would ensure the Stars and Stripes’ editorial independence Congress intended.
Eight Senate Democrats and independents — most members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — have also sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers about plans that could challenge Stars and Stripes’ independence.
“Congress has been clear for decades that Stars and Stripes must be governed by First Amendment principles and insulated from political influence, regardless of which administration is in power,” the senators wrote to the defense secretary Jan. 16. “We urge you to immediately clarify that neither hiring practices nor editorial decisions at Stars and Stripes will be conditioned on ideological alignment or policy advocacy, and to reaffirm, publicly and unequivocally, the newspaper’s statutory independence.”
The lawmakers have not received responses to those letters, officials said.
NMFA also shared their letter Wednesday with the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, Pinchotti said. She said she had not heard anything from the Pentagon in the day since it was delivered, but she hoped for a response.
In the letter, Pinchotti wrote that generations of military troops and their families have counted on Stars and Stripes to provide detailed news that directly impacts their lives. They have trusted it, she wrote, because of its editorial independence from Pentagon interference.
“That independence has enabled Stars and Stripes to report on unsafe conditions in privatized military housing, alleged abuse in Child Development Centers, changes in [Department of Defense Education Activity] schools, and other issues that rarely receive sustained attention from mainstream media,” Pinchotti wrote.
Those stationed overseas especially benefit from Stars and Stripes’ independence because in many locations it is “the most accessible and relevant source of trusted information.”
“Independent reporting is not a distraction from readiness; it’s a part of it,” she said. “Our service members and families deserve facts and not filtered messaging, and it would really be more than a shame. It would be harmful to our military and their families for this to happen.”
