The editor in chief of Stars And Stripes, the publication that covers the U.S. military and is partially funded by the U.S. government, said that he was was being fired following an interview he gave to CBS News Sunday Morning in which he talked of censorship being a “red line” for him.
Erik Slavin told the network on Friday that he was “being fired for stating in a CBS interview that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line. The Pentagon‘s public affairs office has charged me with insubordination.”
“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.
Also getting termination notices was publisher Max Lederer, who recently announced his retirement, and reporter Lara Korte, who also sat for the CBS News interview, which aired on Sunday Morning, per the network.
Korte posted on X, “Today, I 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 policy maker.”
A Pentagon official confirmed the separation notices, but the department declined to comment.
Published continuously since World War II, Stars and Stripes gets about half of its funding from the Pentagon and the remainder from advertising and subscriptions. It is set up to maintain its editorial independence from the military and government.
On Friday, Navy Capt. Bill Urban wrote in a notice posted on the Stars and Stripes website that he was the new military deputy to the publisher. He wrote that in meeting with the Office of the Secretary of War, he received “multiple assurances” that they were committed to “the editorial independence of Stripes.”
He wrote to staffers, “There are no external editorial curbs on our journalists searching out and reporting significant stories. Carry on and ignore the noise. Stay professional and committed to the highest journalistic standards.” He pointed to recent Stars and Stripes reports on the conditions of the USS Lincoln, and noted that there “was plenty of time between the initial report and the subsequent reporting for OSW to shut us down on the subject if they were not committed to our editorial independence.”
He also called for a bigger push into digital and social media. He wrote, “My vision for the future of Stars and Stripes is simple: Moreeyeballs on our content and more impact on our service members while maintaining the highest standard of professional journalism with the credibility that comes with editorial independence.”
The CBS Sunday Morning report detailed concerns that Pentagon was chipping away at the independence of the publication, including the rescinding of a federal regulation that Stars and Stripes operate “without news management or censorship.” The ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, was fired in the spring, and she told the network she worried that “the endgame is turning Stars and Stripes into a public affairs propaganda machine.”
Mark Schoeff Jr., president of the National Press Club, said in a statement, “In firing the editor of Stars and Stripes, Pentagon leadership is making clear their view that the newsroom should exist not as an independent outlet whose reporting serves to benefit U.S. troops, but as a mouthpiece to parrot Pentagon talking points.”
He added, “Our service members deserve news and information they can trust, not narratives that are shaped solely by their own employer.”
