Applicants for positions at the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes are being asked how they would support the president’s policy priorities, raising concerns among some staffers and media watchers about the prospects for the historic outlet’s editorial independence.
First published during the Civil War and continually published since World War II, Stars and Stripes reports on and for the U.S. military community. While it is partly funded by the Pentagon and its staffers are Defense Department employees, Congress has mandated the publication’s independence and taken measures to guarantee it.
But in recent months, applicants for positions at the publication — which reaches about 1.4 million people a day across its platforms, according to the publisher — have been asked: “How would you advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”
That question has prompted worries about whether President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to influence the newspaper’s independence by making an ideological litmus test part of the hiring process, a concern one administration official said was unjustified.
Stars and Stripes leadership was not aware that applicants were being asked that question until The Washington Post inquired about it this month, according to Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper’s ombudsman, a congressionally mandated position charged with defending the newspaper’s editorial independence.
“Asking prospective employees how they would support the administration’s policies is antithetical to Stripes’ journalistic and federally mandated mission,” Smith said. “Journalistically, it’s against ethics, because reporters or any staff member — editors, photographers — should be impartial.”
Smith confirmed that applicants are being asked that question when applying for Stars and Stripes positions on USAJobs, the U.S. government’s employment site. The Office of Personnel Management, not the newspaper’s leadership, was responsible for adding the question, she added.
“Regarding our recruiting, the federal government’s platform wasn’t designed with Stars and Stripes in mind,” Editor in Chief Erik Slavin told The Post in an email. “We pride ourselves on objectivity. We’ve reinforced our commitment to scrupulous balance and accuracy. We do not shy away from holding military officials accountable when a story calls for it.”
Max Lederer, the newspaper’s publisher, said OPM did not notify Stripes that several questions had been added to the application form. “We have not had an applicant inquire about the questions. My understanding is answering is optional and they are not a qualification criterion,” Lederer told The Post in an email.
OPM Director Scott Kupor said the essay questions are optional and give candidates an opportunity to provide additional information about themselves. “We have been very clear that hiring decisions cannot consider political or ideological beliefs,” Kupor said in an emailed statement to The Post. “The plan prohibits any ideological litmus tests and reinforces the nonpartisan character of the federal workforce.”
The question is one of four that the Office of Personnel Management said in June must appear on nearly all government job applications as part of its new Merit Hiring Plan. Smith said she understood why applicants for other types of government jobs would be asked to express their support for administration policies. “But for a journalism job, it’s just inappropriate,” she said.
The three other new questions ask how the applicant’s commitment to the Constitution inspired them to pursue the role; how the applicant would “improve government efficiency and effectiveness”; and how the applicant’s work ethic has contributed to his or her achievements.
Three former and two current Stripes reporters, all of whom were hired at Stripes before the current Trump administration, told The Post they had not been asked about supporting the president’s policies or any similar questions when they applied for their positions with the military newspaper. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because their employers did not authorize them to comment.
“This is a really shocking, and sad, development. Stars and Stripes says it provides ‘independent news and information.’ That seems impossible if reporters are concerned about advancing the president’s policy priorities,” one former Stripes reporter said. “Any sort of loyalty pledge to the government is unacceptable,” another former Stripes reporter said.
A current reporter for the paper said it was troubling that prospective newspaper staffers were being asked the question. “It stings,” the reporter said. “If I were being asked that now, I would have to go with my morals and not apply.”
A Washington-based journalist planned to apply for a writer-editor position at the newspaper in November until encountering the question about supporting the president’s policies. “It struck me as a very savvy phrasing of a loyalty test,” said the journalist, who for that reason ultimately decided not to apply.
Under the first Trump administration, in 2020, the Pentagon planned to shut Stars and Stripes down. But after a bipartisan outcry from lawmakers and veterans, Trump said he would spare the publication. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!” he said in a 2020 social media post.
Since Trump’s return to the White House, the paper has been trying to avoid attention from the administration, according to current and former staffers. “We’re still trying to go under the radar,” the current Stripes reporter said. “There are folks at Stripes who are like, ‘Don’t poke the bear.’”
Lederer said the newspaper has not withheld coverage out of concern of retaliation from the administration. “There has been no pressure by anyone in the administration to adjust coverage,” the publisher wrote in an email.
Hanging over the military newspaper is the specter of what has happened to other news outlets that receive federal funds. At Trump’s behest, Congress in July rescinded $1.1 billion in federal funding from NPR, PBS and their member stations over allegations of liberal bias.
In October, journalists from The Post and dozens of other outlets turned in their Pentagon press credentials after refusing to agree to the Defense Department’s new newsgathering restrictions, which bar reporters from soliciting information that the government hasn’t authorized for them.
Kathy Kiely, a professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, condemned the application’s inclusion of what she called a “loyalty test.”
“The DOD has a lot of people doing PR for them very well. They do not need to turn the newspaper that is supposed to serve the troops into another PR arm, which is effectively what this would do,” Kiely said. “This is advanced censorship. ‘Let’s make sure you’re a loyalist before you can be a journalist.’ And that’s antithetical to the profession.”
Stars and Stripes has historically published stories about issues that affect service members in their daily lives but might not be covered by the mainstream press, such as the employment challenges faced by spouses of service members abroad. That reporting has sometimes touched on policies that have been sharply criticized by opponents of the administration. For example, the newspaper has published detailed coverage on how the Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion is playing out in the military.
A lot is at stake for service members who rely on the newspaper for information they need to make decisions in their daily lives, according to Kelly McBride, senior vice president at the Poynter Institute. “That audience has a different set of needs than the president of the United States,” she said.
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