Stars and Stripes Board: Firings Threaten Independence
Stars and Stripes Board: Firings Threaten Independence
The News
The chair of the Stars and Stripes Publisher Advisory Board says the Pentagon's firing of the military paper's publisher, editor-in-chief and a reporter threatens the outlet's editorial independence — and he wants Congress to ask why.
"The Publisher Advisory Board is deeply concerned that these actions further threaten to interrupt the editorial independence that is essential to Stars and Stripes' credibility and its ability to serve the military community with trusted, independent journalism," Chair Rufus Friday said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"We hope that the House Armed Services and Senate Armed Services Committees seek explanations to these actions," he added.
The Pentagon confirmed the firings and said the three employees have five days to appeal. Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin says he and reporter Lara Korte were fired for a CBS News interview in which they insisted the paper answers to service members, not the Defense Department. Korte says she was told the firing was for "insubordination."
Timeline
The Defense Department announces plans to overhaul Stars and Stripes and strip out what it calls "woke distractions." "The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters," Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell posted on X. The paper, he said, "will focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY. No more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints."
The Pentagon fires the publication's congressionally mandated ombudsman.
The ousted ombudsman sues the government on First Amendment grounds.
Slavin and Korte appear on "CBS Sunday Morning" and argue against Pentagon interference in the paper's coverage. Asked what "foxholes" he was willing to die in, Slavin said: "We need to be able to provide independent news to service members. If we can't do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations, that's ... the foxhole."
The Pentagon installs active-duty Navy Capt. William Urban as deputy publisher. Senate Democrats object in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, arguing the move could further compromise the paper's independence.
Publisher Max Lederer announces his retirement. In his notice he writes that the outlet's mission differs from the Pentagon's in "fundamental ways."
Lederer, Slavin and Korte all receive separation notices. Lederer tells employees in a farewell memo that he disagreed with the decision. Urban publishes an open letter in Stars and Stripes. The advisory board chair issues his warning.
Reactions
"Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me 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," Korte wrote on X on Friday.
She had put it this way on CBS: "I am working for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon. Not for any administration. Not for any policymaker. I am here to cover the military community."
Slavin, who told the Associated Press he was fired over that interview, told The Washington Post on Friday: "I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes should remain independent for service members."
Urban, the Navy captain now in the publisher's chair, struck a conciliatory note in his open letter: "I understand that I am now part of a team, committed to editorially independent journalism that best serves our most important customer, which is our service members, their families, and our greater military community."
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller backed the department. "I'm confident if anybody was fired, it was for just cause," he told reporters Friday, adding he was "100% confident — a million percent confident — in the leadership of the DOW's decisions about everything that is necessary to maintain and ensure the national security of the United States and our troops."
The department itself declined to comment, though a Pentagon official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that "the separation notices are real." Neither Hegseth nor the Pentagon commented further on the dismissals. The Trump administration has criticized the publication over alleged ideological bias.
What's Next
The three fired employees have five days to appeal, the Pentagon said.
The advisory board is pressing the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to demand explanations; neither committee has been reported to have acted yet.
The ombudsman's First Amendment lawsuit, filed in June, is still outstanding.
More
Stars and Stripes was first published during the Civil War and has covered the US military community continuously since World War II. It is partially funded by the Pentagon — the arrangement at the center of this fight, and the reason the paper's independence has a congressionally mandated ombudsman and an outside advisory board attached to it in the first place.
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