Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes editor after CBS interview on editorial independence

Stars and Stripes has always occupied an unusual place in American journalism. It is a newspaper owned by the Pentagon, staffed by federal employees, yet historically insulated from the chain of command—a publication meant to serve the men and women in uniform with news they actually need to know. On any given day, its pages reach roughly 1.4 million readers, mostly online, though print editions still circulate in remote overseas bases where internet access remains spotty. The paper traces its lineage to the Civil War, was revived by General John Pershing in World War I with a simple mandate: give troops a voice, let them understand what they're fighting for. By the time it resumed continuous publication after World War II, Stars and Stripes had become something rare—a government agency explicitly committed to what one founding document called "the free thought and free expression of a free people."

Then, in January 2026, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted on social media that the military was bringing Stars and Stripes "into the 21st century" by removing "woke distractions that syphon morale." No one at the paper could quite say what that meant. When editor-in-chief Erik Slavin was asked to explain, he simply said they'd never been told. That same month, the Pentagon rescinded a decades-old federal regulation that had explicitly prohibited "news management or censorship" at the publication. In March, a memo from the deputy secretary of defense arrived with new operational restrictions: no more comics, no more stories from wire services like the Associated Press. The AP had fallen out of favor after refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico. The effect was immediate and concrete. Breaking news became harder to cover. The paper's ability to serve its readers contracted.

In June, reporter Lara Korte, who covers the Middle East from Germany, wrote a story about upcoming Bad Bunny concerts in Europe—entertainment for newly stationed service members looking for things to do. The story drew attention, particularly because President Trump had once criticized Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show. Korte's piece seemed to exemplify what the Pentagon meant by "woke distractions," though it was simply a reporter doing her job: covering what interested the military community she served. "I'm working for Stars and Stripes," she said, "not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker."

The restrictions prompted two advisory board members to file a lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations. Jacqueline Smith, the paper's former ombudsman—essentially its internal editorial watchdog—wrote a column in April stating plainly that the Defense Department didn't want cartoons in the newspaper anymore. She knew she was, as she put it, "poking the bear." Two weeks later, she was fired. The irony was sharp: Stars and Stripes had survived far worse. During World War II, cartoonist Bill Mauldin drew enlisted men as they actually were—unshaven, muddy, exhausted. Soldiers loved those cartoons because they told the truth. General George Patton hated them and tried to get the paper banned. General Dwight Eisenhower, who would later read the paper as president, sided with Mauldin and told Patton to back off. That was eighty years ago.

On August 21, 2026, the Pentagon issued separation notices to three people: Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief; Lara Korte, the Middle East reporter; and Max Lederer, the publisher. The stated reason was vague. But Slavin and Korte both understood what had happened. They had given interviews to CBS News discussing editorial independence and what they saw as censorship. Slavin had said on camera that if the Pentagon ordered him to run Pentagon-written stories instead of accurate reporting, that would be a red line. He had said if Stars and Stripes became a public relations operation, that was the foxhole he'd be willing to die in. The Pentagon's response was to charge him with insubordination and terminate him for it. In his own statement, Slavin was clear: "I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department's own policies." The question now hanging over the newsroom is whether anyone else will say the same thing out loud.