The leadership of Stars and Stripes, the U.S. military’s newspaper, has been ousted by the Pentagon. Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and publisher Max Lederer were reportedly fired for insubordination and differing visions, respectively. Reporter Lara Korte also confirmed her termination for stating her employment with the newspaper, not the Pentagon.
Pentagon Ousts Stars and Stripes Leadership Amid Censorship Concerns
The editor-in-chief of the U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes stated he was fired for insubordination, citing comments made to CBS News about hypothetical censorship. A source confirmed the Pentagon has issued termination notices to the paper's leadership.
The editor-in-chief of the venerable U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes, Erik Slavin, revealed on Friday that he is being terminated for insubordination. Slavin stated that his dismissal stems from remarks made in a CBS interview where he declared that any hypothetical censorship of news for service members would cross a personal 'red line'.
A source close to the matter, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Max Lederer, the long-serving publisher of Stars and Stripes who was slated for retirement at the end of September, has also been removed from his position. In his recent retirement announcement email, Lederer alluded to a divergence in vision, noting it was apparent the Pentagon had a new direction for the newspaper that differed from his own.
Lara Korte, a reporter who covered the Middle East for the publication, announced via social media on Friday that she too had been let go. She explained her termination was a result of her telling CBS News that she is an employee of Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon.
The Pentagon had not immediately responded to a request for comment regarding these developments.
Stars and Stripes, a news outlet that has been in continuous publication since World War II, providing news and information to U.S. troops globally, receives its funding from the Department of Defense. However, it has historically maintained a significant degree of editorial independence.
Recently, the Pentagon appointed a military deputy to the publisher of the newspaper. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell shared an excerpt from an open letter penned by this newly appointed military deputy on the social media platform X. The letter expressed a forward-looking sentiment, stating, "We may never be able to have the same impact for our service members digitally that our paper had during World War II in a vastly different media environment, but I also believe that we can do better — that we must do better for our most important constituency, the men and women who make up the U.S. Armed Forces."
This situation echoes past controversies. In his first term, President Donald Trump had previously reversed a decision by the Pentagon to cease publication of the newspaper entirely. Press freedom advocates have previously voiced criticism over broader policy shifts during the Trump administration that curtailed journalists' access to the Pentagon, asserting that such actions stifled freedom of speech.
