Pentagon fires military newspaper leadership for 'insubordination'
Deutsche Welle · LC · trust 50/100
The editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes said he was fired, alongside the newspaper's publisher and a reporter, for insubordination after he objected to potential editorial interference.
https://p.dw.com/p/5JEgf US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has increasingly restricted press access to the Pentagon since taking office last year [FILE: Jul 21, 2026] Image: Eric Lee/REUTERS Advertisement The US Pentagon has sacked the editor, publisher and a reporter of military newspaper Stars and Stripes after they publicly objected to potential editorial interference, they said on Friday.
The newspaper, which has been publishing since World War II , is partially funded by the Defense Department but has remained editorially independent.
"According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line," Stars and Stripes Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin said in a statement on Friday.
Slavin received a notice of separation for insubordination, as did Publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte, Slavin was cited by the Associated Press as saying.
Lederer, who has served as the newspaper's publisher since 2007, had announced his intention to retire from his position in September.
In an email announcing his retirement, Lederer had said it was clear that the Pentagon had a new vision for the newspaper which differed from his own.
It came a few weeks after the Pentagon installed Navy Captain William Urban, an active duty serviceman, as the outlet's deputy editor, without Lederer's prior knowledge.
Meanwhile, Korte said on social media she was being fired for insubordination "after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker."
"It's a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press," she wrote.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been extremely critical of the media since taking office in 2025. Among the measures he took was drastically restricting press access to the Pentagon.
"Stars and Stripes will be custom tailored to our warfighters,” Sean Parnell, Hegseth's spokesman, wrote in January on X. "It will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints."
National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. said Slavin's firing was "another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military," adding that it should be immediately reversed.
"Firing a newspaper editor after he publicly defended his newsroom's editorial independence is deeply troubling, and it should concern every journalist and every member of the US military who depends on independent reporting," Schoeff said.
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