USA21 August, 20262 min read
Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes Leaders Erik Slavin, Max Lederer, Lara Korte
Pentagon fired editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte. Reasons cited were insubordination after they spoke against Defense Department interference.
Stars and Stripes fired
The Pentagon fired Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer and reporter Lara Korte on Friday, citing insubordination after they spoke publicly against military interference in the Pentagon-funded outlet. Slavin told The Associated Press he was dismissed for insubordination after an interview he gave that objected to potential censorship by the U.S. military, and he said he was being fired “for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line.”
The Associated Press reported that the separation notices were delivered Friday and that Lederer had announced his impending retirement effective at the end of September, while Korte said she was fired after telling a CBS reporter she works for Stars and Stripes “— not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policy maker.” The Hill reported that the Pentagon also dismissed the publisher and at least one reporter, and it said the firings came as the department looked to reshape Stars and Stripes’ coverage in recent months.
Opposition and press reaction
National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. condemned the firings as “another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military,” and he said the decision should be immediately reversed.
Schoeff said, “Firing a newspaper editor after he publicly defended his newsroom’s editorial independence is deeply troubling,” and he added that it should concern every journalist and every member of the U.S. military who depends on independent reporting.
CNN reported that Lara Korte confirmed to the network that she was fired on Friday along with publisher Max Lederer and editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and it quoted her saying, “These firings are a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press.”
In a separate reaction, Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, wrote that “Firing journalists for complaining about censorship. Ugly and un-American.”
What comes next
The Pentagon’s broader effort to reshape Stars and Stripes’ coverage is tied in the reporting to a push to refocus content away from “woke distractions,” with Sean Parnell writing in January that “Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters.”
Parnell’s message also said it would “focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY,” and the reporting tied the firings to a pattern that included the April removal of ombudsman Jacqueline Smith.
In the same context, Stars and Stripes reported that Navy Capt. William Urban was the paper’s newly installed military deputy to the publisher, and it quoted Korte saying she considered the firings “a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories.”
The Associated Press also reported that three Democratic senators wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking why Urban had been installed, and it said it was unclear whether Urban would become head publisher after the Pentagon’s changes.