'Ugly, Un-American Attack on Our Free Press': Stars & Stripes Journalists Fired for Saying They Had Independence

Correspondent Lara Korte, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and publisher Max Lederer were fired from their posts at Stars and Stripes on Friday, in the latest attack on press freedom by President Donald Trump and members of his administration—this time targeting the paper that provides daily news to U.S. service members worldwide.

"I consider it a great privilege to live alongside members of the military and share their stories," said Korte in a social media post following her ouster. "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."

Korte said she 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 policymaker."

Slavin explained that he and Korte were fired specifically over an interview they gave earlier this year with CBS News, in which they said they were independent of the Pentagon and the White House and that they would resist any effort to censor the news military members receive. Even though the military publication operates within the US Department of Defense, it has always enjoyed editorial independence.

“I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies,” he said in a statement Friday.

Press freedom advocates slammed the move by the DoD.

"Today's firings are an ugly, un-American attack on our free press," said the free speech group Fire in a statement. "America's brave service members swore an oath to defend the Constitution. They deserve the free and independent press our Founders fought for 250 years ago, not Pravda-style propaganda. The United States is uniquely committed to freedom of the press, and has been since our founding. Accepting censorship means losing our national identity."

Speaking with the Associated Press, Slavin said his firing for insubordination was for saying in the CBS interview "that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line” for him.

“We need to be able to provide independent news to service members,” he had told CBS in July. “If we can’t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations? Yeah, that’s the foxhole.”

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According to reporting by Stars and Stripes, Lederer was also fired Friday, though he had announced his retirement earlier this week, on Tuesday.

In a letter to the outlet's staff, later posted online, Lederer explained, “It has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of value and mission of the Stars & Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction of the leadership of the Department of Defense."

Replacing Lederer as the new publisher of Stars and Stripes is Capt. William Urban, a longtime public relations officer and communications specialist inside the US military with no professional experience in the field of journalism.

Urban previously served, as he explained in a memo to newspaper staff on Friday, as a "spokesman for some of the hardest Public Affairs assignments in the Navy and Department of War for more than 20 years."

"Does repeatedly being at the center of a media firestorm qualify me to help lead Stars and Stripes?" Urban asked in his letter. "No, but it is not a bad place to start."

Apparently, a public relations expert is exactly what The Pentagon, under the leadership of Secretary of State Pete Hegseth and President Trump, has been looking for.

Earlier this week, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Secretary Hegseth about their concerns over the "shakeup" at Stars and Stripes, represented by Lederer's retirement announcement and the news that Urban would replace him.

“The placement of an active-duty Public Affairs officer in the senior leadership of an organization whose credibility depends on its independence from the military chain of command raises serious questions,” the Senators wrote in a letter.

“For generations, American servicemembers, particularly those stationed overseas and in combat zones, have relied on Stars and Stripes for credible and independent news," the Senators added. "That trust depends on preserving a clear separation between independent journalism and the Department’s public affairs apparatus. At this critical moment of leadership transition, that independence must not be compromised.”