The Pentagon terminated the editor‑in‑chief, publisher and a Middle East reporter of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes on Friday, citing insubordination. The dismissals come as the department seeks to reshape its coverage of military affairs and signal a tightening of editorial control.
Erik Slavin, Max Lederer and Lara Korte received separation notices after Slavin told a CBS interviewer that any censorship would cross a personal red line. Lederer, who announced a September retirement, had not been consulted when Navy Captain William Urban was installed as deputy editor. Korte said she was fired for stating she worked for Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon.
The firings have drawn criticism from press‑freedom advocates, with the National Press Club president calling the action a brazen attempt to dictate military news. Observers warn that curbing independent reporting could erode service‑member trust in official information and raise broader concerns about governmental influence over the press.
One account frames the dismissals as part of a broader Pentagon effort to reshape Stars and Stripes’ editorial line, while another attributes them directly to insubordination over comments made publicly in an earlier CBS interview.