Sad news. In my day, at least in Europe and Asia, the English-language International Herald Tribune newspaper was an alternative news source for American troops stationed overseas, and you could buy it on base. Sadly, it’s gone now and the Stars & Stripes is all that’s left.
S&S is, in many ways, the hometown newspaper for American troops stationed overseas. As I’ve said in many a post on my blog and on social media, S&S has never been very independent — when it comes to military-related news, it’s pretty much a party-line broadsheet for higher command — but it resembles a regular newspaper in that it also covers national and international news and includes articles on non-military topics from outside sources like AP and Reuters. By attacking S&S as woke, I’m guessing the administration’s intention is to pare its coverage down to military news and sports, leaving little of interest for service members and dependents who want to keep up with what’s going on back home and in the world.
I don’t know the current shape of Armed Forces television and radio, but it was pretty bad in my day — imagine Fox News or AM radio only with the commericial ads replaced by short instructional videos on how to render hand salutes and the allowable length of female hair — and I can only imagine it’s worse today.
With Trump, book banning and censorship is a given. One of the first things he and his administration did after taking office in January 2021 was to order the removal of books and teaching materials addressing “woke” topics from military academies, war colleges, and Department of Defense schools. Why? Because those institutions are under their direct control, so they could. Therefore they did. That’s why. Clamping down on Stars & Stripes news coverage is an extension of earlier administration censorship, and frankly I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to get around to it.
But they can’t control what the civilian press covers, can they? Well, you know they want to, and never doubt for a minute that’s the end goal. These administration announcements appeared on social media just yesterday:
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Brendan Carr is, of course, Trump’s head of the Federal Communications Commission. He has the power to revoke, or refuse to renew, the broadcast licenses of radio and television networks, so his threats are not empty ones. Trump’s social media post, on the right, shows you what the administration is specifically upset about; in this case news coverage of American military losses in the current war with Iran.
We don’t know what’s really happening with the war against Iran. There are no reporters embedded with American military units in theater; there’s no longer an independent Pentagon press corps. Trump and Hegseth have direct control over what kind of outside news American troops stationed overseas are exposed to, and over what students in military academies and war colleges are allowed to study. They even control the teaching materials, curricula, and library contents of Department of Defense schools, where the children of overseas troops are educated. They would very much like it if they could extend that control over what you and I are exposed to via network TV and radio, and pretty soon they’ll figure out a way to go after newspapers too, probably with the help of billionaire friends like Jeff Bezos, who’s doing his best to turn the Washington Post into a civilian version of Stars & Stripes.