Posted on 08/22/2026 4:05:33 AM PDT by DFG
The Pentagon fired the top brass at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes and one of its reporters Friday over alleged insubordination.
Stars and Stripes’ longtime publisher Max Lederer, its editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte were issued their dismissal notices, Fox News Digital confirmed.
The firings, first reported by CBS News, stem from Slavin and Korte’s unauthorized participation in a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment that aired last month about the Pentagon’s efforts to overhaul the paper and Lederer’s refusal to fire them at the direction of Pentagon leadership, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
“According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line. The Pentagon’s public affairs office has charged me with insubordination,” Slavin said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“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 was appointed editor-in-chief of Stars in Stripes in September 2025. He joined the paper in 2005 as a reporter in Japan and later an embed reporter with U.S. Forces in Iraq, his work eventually taking him across the globe, according to the paper’s report about the firings.
Korte, who joined the paper in 2024, took to social media, posting on X, “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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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"Editorially independent"=dog whistle for "leftist propaganda."
They felt they should have been allowed to set the tone for the paper.
👆☝️👆☝️
” The firings, first reported by CBS News, stem from Slavin and Korte’s unauthorized participation in a “CBS Sunday Morning” segment that aired last month about the Pentagon’s efforts to overhaul the paper and Lederer’s refusal to fire them at the direction of Pentagon leadership, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital. “
Yeah, try that scheisse on your local HR-Karen regarding the company newsletter.
Same-same
"Independent" means marching in lock step with the same DNC talking points and left-wing slop as the MSM.
The only depts “independent” in any organization is the Audit or QA dept — and, they report directly to the top boss.
That is not “independent”.
If Pentagon pays your salary, the Pent sets the rules.
Here is the CBS interview from a month ago.
When I was last in Germany from 88-91 during my Army career, Stars and Stripes had a near monopoly on the newspaper business for soldiers. US Today had a two section edition of yesterday’s news but other than that, nothing. Similarly American Forces Radion and TV were the only over the air options. They were relatively balanced in that time but not now. Good move by the Sec of War.
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