Pentagon to overhaul Stars and Stripes, cut wire services while focusing on ‘warfighting’

The Pentagon said Thursday it will revamp Stars and Stripes as part of a plan to modernize the operations of a military newspaper first published during the Civil War and in continuous print since World War II.

Among the changes, Stars and Stripes will no longer publish reports from wire services such as The Associated Press or “repurposed D.C. gossip columns.” Trump administration officials said they will return the newspaper to its original mission.

“Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and all things military.”

Stars and Stripes receives some funding from the federal government. Its reporters are technically employed by the Department of Defense and receive government salaries.

But Congress has mandated the newspaper’s editorial independence, saying it should function like an unbiased news agency serving the military community, rather than a government mouthpiece.

“We are bringing Stars and Stripes into the 21st century. 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,” Mr. Parnell posted on X.

Former Stars and Stripes staffers include the late “60 Minutes” commentator and author Andy Rooney and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin, whose GI characters Willie and Joe were popular with the troops while earning the enmity of Army Gen. George S. Patton.

This isn’t the first time Stars and Stripes has found itself in the crosshairs of the White House. The first Trump administration attempted to shutter its operations in 2020, but the effort was canceled after bipartisan congressional pushback and outrage from veterans.

Thursday’s announcement about the new editorial direction for Stars and Stripes follows a Washington Post report saying applicants for jobs at the newspaper were asked how they would support President Trump’s agenda.

“Stars and Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members,” Mr. Parnell posted on X. “The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy.”