Pentagon expands oversight of Stars and Stripes, limits content
stripes.com103 points by geox 4 hours ago
103 points by geox 4 hours ago
"The Pentagon has released a modernization plan for Stars and Stripes that affirms the publication’s independence while expanding Defense Department oversight, introducing new restrictions on content"
Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements.
I think the sentence just contains very laid back observations of hypocrisy.
"affirms the publication's independence" = Says it's independent.
"expanding Defense Department oversight, introducing new restrictions" = makes it non-independent.
Conclusion: The sentence indicates the policy is hypocritical and built on lies. The sentence is not contradictory, the policy is.
Well put, totally agree! The key word here is “affirms”.
Here, watch; I hereby affirm that I am god incarnate, that I have no flaws, and that every unit test I’ve ever written has passed on the first try. It cannot be denied that I affirmed that!
> Seems like this sentence contains contradictory statements.
"War is peace."
"Freedom is slavery."
Trump kind of follows it - he declared his war against Iran over about 10 tims already.
The book 1984 was written in 1948 (easy to remember). Kind of interesting to see that it also fits to the lame strategies pursued by Trump. The "flood the zone with shit" is an older copy/paste strategy of the KGB (as explained in the 1980s by Yuri, though he did not compare it to the flood-the-zone part, but it is virtually identical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9apDnRRSOCk; though perhaps even that strategy is older, the chinese have numerous stratagems that are ancient).
Once, when asked about arming teachers in school, Trump gave a brief answer that went, we should, but we shouldn’t, but we should, but we shouldn’t. Four contradictory answers to a binary question in one sentence.
The guy doesn’t even lie. He’s a reality TV actor working without a script. He says whatever he thinks will get ratings, and if he’s not sure then he’ll try different things and see what sticks.
It will never cease to baffle me that so many people saw this behavior and said, that’s leadership material.
Ask democrat politician what is a woman and watch them squirm trying to not say the absurd thing while also defending voting for the absurd thing (i.e. men competing with women in sports; men raping women in prisons).
Or ask Kamala literally anything and receive a word salad followed by a hyena's cackle.
Or watch the absolute masterpiece of Gavin Newsom not answering why latinos in California (according to him) don't have access to a checking account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42wbI7LxRns
It's truly amazing how we weaves and deflects under Corolla's direct fire.
If you measure politicians by doing what they say and saying what they mean, Trump is 1%. But TDS blurs your vision, among other side effects.
I assume it means changing governance policies while letting them continue to make their own decisions within that framework.
In which case I'd say you are inexplicably assuming good faith on the part of this government. Are you paying attention at all?
When it comes to “simplest and most likely explanation,” the bad faith assumption is now the leading choice with the current regime.
Precisely. It’s the same methodology used to suppress speech and thought through social media where the terms of service and social media guidelines are used to create a micromanaged framework of approved speech and thought that just happens to align with what one particulate group or another controls.
The next layer of this control harness is to neutralize the Constitution in America that protects inalienable rights, is the “freedoms of speech (within paternalistic approved boundaries), but not freedom of reach” mentality of, “sure, say all you want, but you won’t even be allowed or able to see that we put you in a digital speech dungeon.”
We are essentially allowing and creating an analog to the very sadistic and evil conditions imposed by the ruling aristocratic class of the past and the hidden hand that ruled your life as non-nobility. You get thrown in digital dungeons with no recourse or rights. You are beaten and abused for you thought and speech. You have no right or ability to defend yourself from the torments and abuses of the ruling psychopaths, etc.
That is why freedom of speech is so important, because the sick and depraved ruling class people cannot stand even the ability of people to talk about the abuses they perpetrate against them. It’s typical abusive patterns of truly awful people that are the enemies of all of the rest of humanity.
Debasing language is the way of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink
This is wrong and rhymes with all the sabre-rattling towards news orgs from the white house over the last couple days.
It will also make the US armed forces _actively worse_ at their jobs. It won't even take very long. If you can't effectively reflect on your errors and consider non-politically-aligned points of view, your strategists are going to be running in the dark.
The most-crippling part of this is removing their ability to use wire services (AP, Reuters, et c).
It means they can only cover news if they send a correspondent. They cannot cover much at all that way. It basically means it’s just a company newsletter now. They don’t even have any correspondents covering the war.
"Defense Department intended to “refocus” the news organization... it “should” republish content created by the Defense Department public affairs offices with a label describing its origin"
Article makes it clear that they're banning the publication of wire services with the goal to make this publication more like a DoD PR team and less like a news source.
Wait, they can't even internally remember that they're the DoW (Department of War) and not DoD?
They're not. That's executive fiat. The actual name of the department changes if Congress says it does.
I suspect that was deliberate. DoW is the preferred nomenclature but DoD is still technically correct.
The article is phrased in a way to imply that the author would rather the publication maintain independence. It is probably the last time she will be permitted to say "department of defense".
The Department of War is an “alternate title”. Department of Defense continues to be correct
About a week ago Stars and Stripes had an article that strongly implied that the war with Iran had already had far more casualties than the (at the time) three KIA.
I think it was about increased blood donations in Germany.
I saw this message spread like a wild fire in the osint sphere 2 week ago.
Already told me war with Iran is going bad. Hell to the point that even John "we need to attack Iran now" Bolton couldn't get it hard anymore at the thought of attacking Iran.
Ah, the cool newspaper that fought the American propaganda of war before.
https://www.stripes.com/news/military-terminates-rendon-cont...
It was a fun story.
> "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," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell
https://www.npr.org/2026/03/14/nx-s1-5748020/pentagon-tighte...
Huh. I just watched Full Metal Jacket last night for the first time in a few years.
What did they expect if it was Pentagon sponsored rather than independent?
They can always post to r/WarsAndGripes.
They probably expected it to be independent when it was created and funded to be independent…
A free press is one of the core tenets of a democracy. The government supporting that was not just unremarkable, before the current regime it was expected. This is not normal. Nobody in this administration is normal, and none of then seem to actually want to live in a democratic society.
All that is true, but dependence on the Pentagon is a vulnerability anyway. Tomorrow they could impose publishing outright lies. Free press is meant to be independent, not state sponsored.
I don't disagree with your point; I'm just seeing it for what it is.
Remember that Hegseth recently celebrated that CNN is being taken over by a friend of the administration who will eagerly parrot their propaganda in the service of keeping the idiocracy controlled. FCC commissioner Carr threatened media licenses for firms that aren't positive enough about the Iran war (or is it a war? Special military operation?)
The US is in a bizarre place right now. The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism), from enlisting tech execs in the military, to demanding complete control over all commerce (including demanding ownership stakes), to absolute chilling control over speech. Bizarre how the same people who have been using communism as their boogieman for decades are the biggest cheerleaders.
Trump is a pathetic, demented, halfwit diddler Temu-version of Xi, and it's comical irony. It's why he's surrounded by garbage people, like the drunk tough-guy-speech-from-ChatGPT joke of a Department of SortofWar, Hegseth, the clown who only ever achieve major and is a massive embarrassment to the men and women of the armed forces. Pathetic.
Though note that the communism is only in regards to government control, corruption and self-dealing. Zero benefits for Americans, unless you're a billionaire. Americans knowingly voted for this. They willingly lined themselves up to be future Soylent Green for their plutocrat class. Biggest self-destruction in the history of mankind.
> The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism), from enlisting tech execs in the military, to demanding complete control over all commerce (including demanding ownership stakes), to absolute chilling control over speech.
It is more fascist than communist. The communist way would have been to make the state take control of companies and then put apparatchiks at the top. This is the other way around, with companies taking over the state instead. But yeah, it’s nitpicking at this point.
It is mind boggling how so many people in the US are STILL supporting Trump. Like, do you not have eyes? All those movies about evil people gaining power with nonsensical support from the population were actually just telling the truth. Humans in aggregate are not capable of managing themselves.
They do indeed have eyes. This is what they voted for and they are getting what they want.
Honestly, as little respect as I have for them, I have even less for those who used to support him and no longer do. They had bad judgement then and I don't think their skills have improved. They're temporarily leaning away from the direct consequences of their bad choices but remain incapable of learning why that choice was bad, and will make more bad choices in the future.
They’re excited that all those blue-haired liberals will finally get what’s coming to them.
> The actions of this administration are positively communist (in the most cynical, fear-mongered notion about communism)
I understand from which cultural context this “communist” label comes, but in political science it’s called “authoritarian”. Small but important correction.
It seems as if the current administration is among the total Hall of Fame of lowest IQ.
At the least they have big hands ... right?
We elected them. A lot of us are vociferously defending them.
What does that say about us?