{"id":5650,"date":"2026-08-20T16:42:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5650"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:42:24","slug":"the-militarys-own-newspaper-is-too-woke-for-pete-hegseth-as-longtime-stars-and-stripes-publisher-retires-after-decades-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5650","title":{"rendered":"The military\u2019s own newspaper is too \u2018woke\u2019 for Pete Hegseth as longtime Stars and Stripes publisher retires after decades of service"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Max D. Lederer Jr. announced his retirement, effective at the end of September, in a memo to staff on Tuesday, as well as in an interview with Stars and Stripes. In the memo, seen by The Associated Press, Lederer, the second full-time civilian in the position, wrote that it had \u201cbecome clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The announcement comes less than four months after the Pentagon fired Jacqueline Smith, ombudsman for the newspaper, whose job was to safeguard editorial independence. The news outlet is partly funded by the Defense Department, but has a legacy of independence from military and government leadership. \u201cNo one should be surprised that they\u2019re kicking out the one person charged by Congress with protecting Stars and Stripes\u2019 editorial independence,\u201d Smith wrote in a column.<\/p>\n

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Stars and Stripes has recently been at the forefront of some of the reporting on conditions for sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln and concerns for their mental health during the aircraft carrier\u2019s long deployment \u2014 concerns that\u00a0President Donald Trump has downplayed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of larger, government-driven changes to the military publication<\/h4>\n

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Lederer\u2019s retirement, which comes seven months after the department announced in a social media post that it would essentially overhaul the newspaper to align with its current messaging.<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s spokesman, Sean Parnell, wrote on on X in January that the Pentagon \u201cis returning Stars and Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters.\u201d He said the department will \u201crefocus its content away from woke distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,\u201d Parnell wrote. \u201cIt will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More broadly, the developments at Stars and Stripes come against a backdrop of increased efforts by Hegseth to control media coverage of the department.<\/p>\n

Last year, officials attempted to impose\u00a0restrictions on journalists working inside the Pentagon,\u00a0which, in turn, led most news outlets to turn in their access badges and\u00a0walk out.<\/p>\n

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Then this summer, the Pentagon took another step and declared its press office\u00a0a classified space\u00a0\u2014 instituting a policy that journalists must be accompanied by an escort on Pentagon grounds. That policy\u00a0is being challenged in court. In mid-July, a panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the policy could stand, overturning\u00a0a lower court decision.<\/p>\n

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In her\u00a0April column\u00a0titled \u201cThe Pentagon is trying to silence me,\u201d Smith, the former ombudsman, expressed concern over increasing restrictions on the media.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor nearly a year, Pentagon leadership has placed more and more restrictions on the mainstream media,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe New York Times sued and when the Defense\/War Department lost in court, instead of following the judge\u2019s ruling Secretary Hegseth and company pivoted, finding another way to restrict journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Of Stars and Stripes, Smith wrote: \u201cThis newspaper has a long history of commitment to the military community and to journalistic values. Please don\u2019t let it be controlled by Pentagon brass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The departing publisher objected to certain changes<\/h4>\n

Lederer was not made available for an interview with the AP.\u00a0In the interview with Stars and Stripes,\u00a0he said he did not feel the modernization efforts the Pentagon announced in March were appropriate, in particular a transitioning of print products to digital \u2014 a move he feared would limit accessibility for troops.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel that there\u2019s a full recognition of the value of multiple platforms versus only a digital platform,\u201d Lederer was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

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In another development, Stars and Stripes said it could not confirm an account that, in recent weeks, a new deputy had been installed by the Pentagon under Lederer without the publisher\u2019s prior knowledge.<\/p>\n

In a letter seen by the AP, Rufus Friday, the chair of Stars and Stripes\u2019 advisory board of publishers, wrote to congressional leaders about the arrival of the new deputy, a development he said \u201cthreatens Stripes\u2019s editorial independence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roughly half of Stars and Stripes\u2019 budget comes from the Pentagon, and its staff members are considered Defense Department employees.<\/p>\n

The outlet\u2019s mission statement emphasizes that it is \u201ceditorially independent of interference from outside its own editorial chain-of-command\u201d and that it is unique among news organizations tied to the Defense Department in being \u201cgoverned by the principles of the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The newspaper has been reporting about the military steadily since World War II, to an audience mainly of service members stationed overseas.<\/p>\n

Lederer told Stars and Stripes that while his retirement is effective Sept. 30, he does not know whether the Pentagon will keep him as publisher until then or name an acting publisher.<\/p>\n

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___<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Noveck writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP.<\/p>\n

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The exit follows the Pentagon’s ouster of ombudsman Jacqueline Smith and reports of a new deputy installed without the publisher’s knowledge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military"],"yoast_head":"\nThe military\u2019s own newspaper is too \u2018woke\u2019 for Pete Hegseth as longtime Stars and Stripes publisher retires after decades of service - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5650\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The military\u2019s own newspaper is too \u2018woke\u2019 for Pete Hegseth as longtime Stars and Stripes publisher retires after decades of service - 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