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

Three Pentagon employees—editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, reporter Lara Korte, and publisher Max Lederer—were terminated following their public statements about editorial independence.

Since the Civil War, Stars and Stripes has served as a rare and deliberate paradox — a government-owned newspaper explicitly shielded from government control, built on the premise that soldiers deserve honest information, not managed truth. In early 2026, the Pentagon began dismantling that arrangement, banning comics and wire service content, rescinding the regulation against censorship, and ultimately firing three staff members — including editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte — after they spoke publicly about editorial independence. The episode places an old question back at t

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

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