Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes editor, publisher and reporter

The Pentagon on Friday moved to fire the editor in chief of Stars and Stripes as well as its retiring publisher and a civilian reporter who covers the Middle East for the news organization.

Erik Slavin, the editor in chief, said he was being fired for insubordination after stating in a CBS interview last month that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line in the Pentagon’s efforts to exert control over the newspaper.

“I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies,” he said in a statement Friday.

He said he received a notice of proposed separation and is reviewing it.

A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the separation notices. When asked for comment, the official referred Stars and Stripes to an open letter published Friday by Navy Capt. William Urban, the paper’s newly installed military deputy to the publisher.

Slavin was named the paper’s top editor in September 2025. He joined Stars and Stripes in 2005 as a reporter in Japan and went on to embed with U.S. forces in Iraq, report in South Korea and oversee news operations in Europe and the Middle East.

He said in the feature on CBS Sunday Morning that it was imperative for Stars and Stripes to provide independent news to troops.

“If we can’t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations,” he said, then that would be something on which he would be unwilling to compromise.

Lara Korte, the Middle East reporter, also appeared in the segment. In it, she said she worked for Stars and Stripes — not for the Pentagon or for any administration or policymaker.

“I’m here to cover the military community,” she said.

In a statement on Friday, Korte said she considered it a “great privilege” to live alongside members of the military at the newspaper’s European headquarters in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and to share their stories.

“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,” she said.

Korte, who joined the paper in December 2024, said she was proud of her work and the work of her colleagues, particularly the coverage over the past six months of the U.S. war against Iran, on which she heavily reported.

“Military families and service members have trusted us to share their experience with the world, and I don’t take that lightly,” Korte said.

Max D. Lederer Jr., the publisher, was fired after announcing his retirement on Tuesday. He said in a retirement notice to staff that his understanding of the value and the mission of Stars and Stripes differed in “fundamental ways” from the Pentagon.

He was slated to retire on Sept. 30 after more than 30 years of working for the paper. Lederer did not respond to a request for comment.

The firings on Friday follow the April termination of the publication’s ombudsman, a role established by Congress to safeguard the paper’s editorial independence.

The Pentagon in March outlined an overhaul effort for Stars and Stripes that barred it from using some news wire services and running comics and other syndicated features.

It also stated that content must be consistent with “good order and discipline,” a phrase borrowed from the Uniform Code of Military Justice.