{"id":36367,"date":"2026-08-23T04:50:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36367"},"modified":"2026-08-23T04:50:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:50:59","slug":"pentagon-fires-publisher-and-editor-of-us-military-news-outlet-stars-and-stripes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36367","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon fires publisher and editor of US military news outlet Stars and Stripes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Max Lederer and Erik Slavin receive termination notices after publication reported on crew conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon has fired the publisher and the editor of Stars and Stripes, the US military<\/a> news outlet that has clashed with the Trump administration and armed forces brass over its partly taxpayer-funded reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Max Lederer and editor Erik Slavin received termination notices, CBS News<\/a> reported on Friday. The cause cited was insubordination, and they have been given five days to appeal against their dismissals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slavin later told the Associated Press that his firing for insubordination was \u201cfor stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said that he stood by the principle \u201cthat Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, reporter Lara Korte wrote<\/a> on X that she had been fired for insubordination, too, for previously telling CBS that her work for Stars and Stripes did not mean she worked for \u201cthe Pentagon \u2026 any administration \u2026 [or] any policy maker\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories,\u201d Korte also wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lederer\u2019s, Slavin\u2019s and Korte\u2019s dismissals came days after the publication reported on crew conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier that have\u00a0caused concern<\/a>\u00a0among veterans and military health experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon officials had reportedly discussed firing Lederer ahead of his scheduled retirement in September. He has served as publisher of the military daily for 19 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of the Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction of the leadership of the Department of Defense,\u201d Lederer said in a letter to staff, which was\u00a0posted on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outlet\u2019s reporting on the Lincoln, which is heading for port in San Diego after an extended deployment in the Middle East as part of the war in Iran<\/a> that the Trump administration started in February alongside Israel, was published on 12 August, on the same day<\/a> as similar reporting in the Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump subsequently dismissed concerns about conditions on Lincoln in part, with the president saying the crew\u2019s deployment had been \u201cnot nearly long enough\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outlet\u2019s reporting on the Lincoln is not the only issue to have placed Stars and Stripes in conflict with the Trump administration<\/a>. Heralded as representing \u201cthe free thought and free expression of a free people\u201d, it has sometimes had a contentious relationship with its primary sponsor before evidently reaching a boiling point during Trump\u2019s second presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump-led Pentagon has been warring with the press that covers it, restricting access and demanding that journalists not seek confidential sources. That led to\u00a0reporters turning in their access badges<\/a>\u00a0rather than acceding to those demands, setting the stage for an\u00a0influx of<\/a>\u00a0right-wing media voices at the Pentagon and a\u00a0legal battle<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, the Trump administration\u2019s Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, posted on X<\/a> a pledge to bring Stars and Stripes \u201cinto the 21st century\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that siphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members,\u201d Parnell also said, invoking a term used by the political right to deride progressive social initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slavin hinted<\/a> at tensions with the military brass in July when he told CBS News that the \u201cfoxhole\u201d he would be willing to die in would be over editorial independence from the Pentagon, which provides about 65% of Stars and Stripes\u2019 funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to be able to provide independent news to service members,\u201d he said<\/a> to the network. \u201cIf we can\u2019t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations? Yeah, that\u2019s the foxhole.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Korte in that CBS story also said she was \u201chere to cover the military community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m working for Stars and Stripes \u2013 not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stars and Stripes\u2019 Jacqueline Smith, an ombudsman, or public-facing editor, for the publication, was fired in January after writing a story critical of the Pentagon press restrictions sought by the Trump administration<\/a>. Smith later sued the Pentagon, alleging that her termination was retaliatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The publication reaches about 1.4 million readers daily online and via an overseas print edition. It was first published during the US civil war, which began in 1861.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stars and Stripes became a daily publication during the First World War on the orders of Gen John Pershing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/aug\/21\/pentagon-fires-publisher-editor-stars-stripes-uss-abraham-lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Lederer and Erik Slavin receive termination notices after publication reported on crew conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln The Pentagon has fired the publisher and the editor of Stars and Stripes, the US military news outlet that has clashed with the Trump administration and armed forces brass over its partly taxpayer-funded reporting. Publisher Max Lederer and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[512,33864,30303,33865,33863,33862,33866,349,33473],"class_list":["post-36367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-america-2","tag-news-outlet","tag-pentagon","tag-publisher","tag-stars-and-stripes","tag-state-department-2","tag-termination","tag-us-2","tag-uss-abraham-lincoln","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36368,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36367\/revisions\/36368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}