Pentagon fires Stars and Stripes editor after censorship warning interview

Newyork,UPDATED: Aug 22, 2026 04:12 IST

The Pentagon on Friday fired the editor-in-chief, publisher and a reporter at Stars and Stripes, the US military newspaper, according to the editor. Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin said he was dismissed for insubordination after he objected in an interview to possible censorship by the US military.

The action has come at a time when President Donald Trump's administration, in its second term, has taken an increasingly combative approach towards the news media. It has also sharply reduced Pentagon access for journalists covering the Defence Department, while other parts of the executive branch have clashed in policy and in courts with The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and The New York Times, and used the FCC to target broadcast networks.

Slavin told The Associated Press that he and the others had received separation notices. He said he was being fired "for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line" and said he stood by the principle "that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent". Slavin said reporter Lara Korte was also cited for the same CBS interview. Korte did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, publisher Max Lederer had announced his retirement with effect from the end of September, but Slavin said Lederer too had received a separation notice. Lederer also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His retirement announcement had come a few weeks after the Pentagon installed a new deputy publisher, active-duty service member Navy Capt. William Urban, under him without his prior knowledge. On Thursday, three Democratic senators wrote to Pete Hegseth asking why Urban had been installed. Asked whether he would now become the new publisher, Urban said in an email to AP, "I am currently the Military Deputy to the Publisher. I can't comment on what my role will be in the future."

Lederer had been at Stars and Stripes for three decades and had served as publisher since 2007. The Pentagon's move under Hegseth comes as it seeks to exert editorial control and remove what it calls "woke distractions". In a staff memo, Lederer wrote that it had "become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization". In April, the Pentagon had also fired Jacqueline Smith, the newspaper's ombudsman, whose role was to safeguard editorial independence.

The dismissals of Slavin, Lederer and Korte have thus unfolded against a wider confrontation between the Trump administration and sections of the US media, with Stars and Stripes' editorial independence now at the centre of the dispute.

With PTI Inputs

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