Topline
Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief of military newspaper Stars and Stripes, told the BBC on Saturday that he’s worried about censorship in the Pentagon after he was fired by the Department of Defense for “insubordination” in the wake of an unauthorized media appearance.
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calls on reporters during a press briefing at the Pentagon on May 5, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia.
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Key Facts
Slavin, who was in the top role at the paper for less than a year, told the BBC he thinks Pentagon officials are becoming “less and less inclined to speak on the record” despite living “in a time when we really need to hear what’s happening.”
Slavin said the defense department cited insubordination and an unauthorized media appearance as the reason for his dismissal and he said he thinks the firing was a direct response to a comment he made on CBS News calling censorship of news for service members “a red line” that cannot be crossed.
The firing comes about two weeks after Stars and Stripes reported on apparent suicide attempts from service members experiencing a near record-breaking deployment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, which multiple military leaders and President Donald Trump repeatedly denied before agreeing to end the deployment.
Slavin said he didn’t know if the reporting about the Lincoln played a role in his dismissal, but his firing is the latest move by the Pentagon to stifle the news outlet’s editorial independence, according to the New York Times.
He was sent a termination notice alongside Lara Korte, a Middle East correspondent, and publisher Max Lederer, who earlier in the week announced he’d retire due to ongoing conflict with Pentagon leadership on the paper’s direction.
Korte said on X she thinks her dismissal, also blamed on “insubordination,” had to do with comments she made during the same CBS News segment in which she said she worked for “Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker.”
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories,” Korte said. “It’s a shame for the institution and service members, who swore to defend the Constitution and deserve the right to a free and independent press.”
KEY BACKGROUND
Stars and Stripes has been a newspaper for more than 100 years and is operated as an independent news organization for U.S. service members, though it functions under a hybrid model tied to the Department of Defense. Roughly half to 65% of the organization’s budget comes from taxpayers via the Department of Defense, and the rest comes from commercial revenue streams like subscriptions and advertisements. Staff members are formally counted as defense department or government employees. In theory, the paper maintains its independence through a 1994 congressional framework and First Amendment protections safeguarded by Congress. Its mission mandates that news reporting remain free of chain-of-command approval, but the Pentagon earlier this year rescinded a regulation requiring “a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.” At the time, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the paper must “refocus its content away from woke distractions” and, months later, banned the paper from running comics or articles from The Associated Press news wire, according to the Times.
SURPRISING FACT
The Pentagon hasn’t held a press conference since May, despite being involved in a high profile war in the Middle East that has been blamed for rising American gas prices and growing concerns over regional stability and U.S. military involvement abroad. The Pentagon in October attempted to enforce a strict media policy that would only allow outlets to report information officially authorised by the DoD, but major news outlets like the Times, Washington Post and CNN refused to comply. A federal judge later blocked the restrictions.
BIG NUMBER
1.4 million. That’s the daily number of readers and visitors to Stars and Stripes, according to the publication.
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