Pentagon to Remove ‘Woke Distractions’ From Stars and Stripes Publication

Democratic senators expressed concern over the Pentagon’s decision to take control of the military newspaper.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on July 2, 2025. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo

The Pentagon will remove “woke distractions” from the Stars and Stripes news publication for the U.S. military and return content to its original mission, U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell announced on Thursday.

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

The publication reaches around 1.4 million readers every day.

The first known edition of a newspaper for troops was published during the civil war in November 1861 by Union soldiers on presses owned by the Bloomfield Daily Herald. It was a one-issue phenomenon and started a tradition of soldiers publishing news for the troops, according to the Library of Congress.

The first official military publication called Stars and Stripes was published in 1918 in Paris during World War I for the American Expeditionary Force to provide uncensored news from soldiers for soldiers.

“Stars & Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Parnell said. “It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and all things military. No repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.

“Stars & Stripes has a proud legacy of reporting news that’s important to our service members. The Department of War is committed to ensuring the outlet continues to reflect that proud legacy.”

An article in Stars and Stripes announcing the change explains that the publication has “long retained independence from editorial oversight from the Pentagon under a congressional mandate that it be governed by First Amendment principles.”

Stars and Stripes’ Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin told editorial staff in a note that the military deserved independent news.

“The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Slavin wrote. “We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

The announcement is the latest move by the Pentagon to dismantle so-called “woke” initiatives during the Trump administration.

Democratic U.S. senators demanded answers from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday, expressing their concern about the changes.

“These developments represent a troubling departure from the First Amendment principles that have governed the newspaper since its inception in 1861,” the senators wrote in a letter. “Any diminishing independence of Stars and Stripes is a blow to the public’s legitimate need for information and disrespectful to our military.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) joins other Democratic senators at a press conference on Dec. 1, 2025, to speak about the Trump administration.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) was among those who signed the letter. Hegseth censured Kelly, a retired Navy captain, on Jan. 5 for “reckless misconduct” over his participation in a video directing troops not to follow “illegal orders.”

Kelly has since sued Hegseth and other defense officials, alleging they violated the U.S. Constitution when they investigated and punished him.