Donald Trump’s administration appears to be trying to impose its political ideology on the Pentagon’s independent news source, according to a report in The Washington Post.
The administration’s surreptitious effort to impose a “loyalty test” at the congressionally funded Stars and Stripes media outlet perfectly epitomizes a regime averse to a press corps that thinks for itself. And it comes following a year when the administration deployed branches of the armed forces and weaponized the Defense Department in some disturbing ways, including launching what appear to be obvious political vendettas.
“Applicants for positions at the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes are being asked how they would support the president’s policy priorities,” according to the Post, “raising concerns among some staffers and media watchers about the prospects for the historic outlet’s editorial independence.”
The report continues:
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.’ The Trump administration has sought to exert its political influence over virtually every federally funded media entity since Donald Trump’s return to office last year, including the (now defunct) Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Stars and Stripes, an organization that dates back to the Civil War, evidently isn’t in the clear. The outlet is run out of the Pentagon but has had its journalistic independence codified by law and upheld in court. Top leadership at Stars and Stripes said they were unaware — but subsequently confirmed — that job applicants were being asked the question. The Office of Personnel Management appears to have included the essay question as part of job postings to the government’s job website. OPM’s director told the Post that the question was optional and claimed, “We have been very clear that hiring decisions cannot consider political or ideological beliefs.” The question appears to be having a deterrent effect, nonetheless. The Post quotes one prospective job applicant who decided not to apply after being weirded out by what he characterized as the application’s “very savvy phrasing of a loyalty test.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
