The Pentagon has fired the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes, the United States military's storied news outlet, along with a top reporter and its longtime publisher, after the journalists publicly defended the publication's editorial independence. The dismissals, announced on Friday, mark a significant escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to reshape a newspaper that has served American service members for more than a century.

Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief, said his termination notice cited insubordination and an unauthorised media appearance as grounds for dismissal. Both he and Middle East correspondent Lara Korte had appeared in a CBS News interview in which Slavin warned that censorship of news for service members would constitute a "red line." Korte stated on social media that she was being fired for telling a CBS reporter that she works "for Stars and Stripes — not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policy maker." Publisher Max Lederer, a three-decade veteran of the paper who had announced his retirement earlier in the week citing deep differences with Pentagon leadership, also received a separation notice. "I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department's own policies," Slavin said.

Founded in the 19th century and operating as an independent military news outlet since World War II, Stars and Stripes is partly funded by the Pentagon but has long been protected by federal regulations requiring a free flow of news to its readers without editorial control or censorship. That regulatory framework began to erode in January, when the Pentagon revoked those protections and its spokesman Sean Parnell announced the paper would be redirected away from what he called "woke distractions" to focus on "warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, and ALL THINGS MILITARY." In April, the paper's ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith — whose congressionally created role was to safeguard editorial independence — was fired after she criticised the Pentagon for interference. Earlier this month, an active-duty Navy captain, William Urban, a former senior Pentagon spokesman with no formal journalism experience, was installed as deputy publisher without prior notice to Lederer.

The firings come amid a broader pattern of confrontation between the Trump administration and the press. The Pentagon has sharply curtailed journalists' access to its facilities, while the administration has pursued legal action against outlets including The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and The New York Times. Stars and Stripes had also drawn attention for its coverage of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier on a record-long deployment since November 2024, including reports of sailors experiencing mental health crises — coverage the administration dismissed as "dishonest."

Press freedom groups and lawmakers responded swiftly to Friday's dismissals. The National Press Club called the firing of Slavin "another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military" and demanded it be reversed. The Society of Professional Journalists warned that service members and their families deserve journalism "produced in their interests — not journalism shaped to serve the interests of the Pentagon." Three Democratic senators — Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren and Jeanne Shaheen — wrote to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth urging him to preserve the paper's independence. Urban, now the most senior figure at the publication, pledged in a letter to uphold "editorially independent journalism" while focusing on digital modernisation, though it remained unclear whether he would formally assume the publisher role.