Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should leave his post if he feels threatened by journalists defending editorial independence, after the Pentagon fired the top editor, publisher and a senior reporter at the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Duckworth’s post on X responded to an Associated Press report on the firings.
Duckworth: “He Should Find a New Job”
“Speaking out against censorship is as American as it gets,” Duckworth wrote. “If Secretary Hegseth is threatened by that, he should find a new job and let the press do theirs.”
Editor Says He Was Fired for Calling Censorship a “Red Line”
Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin told the AP he received a notice of separation for insubordination after telling CNN’s Erin Burnett that his dismissal traced to a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview in which he said “hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line.” Publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte were also dismissed. “I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes must remain editorially independent, as required by law and by the department’s own policies,” Slavin said.
Fired Reporter Says She Told CBS She Works for the Paper, Not the Pentagon
Korte wrote on X that she was informed the Defense Department was firing her for insubordination after telling a CBS reporter that she works “for Stars and Stripes — not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policy maker.”
Publisher’s Retirement Came Days Before He Was Also Dismissed
Lederer, who spent three decades at the paper and 19 years as its publisher, had announced his retirement earlier in the week, effective at the end of September, before also receiving a separation notice Friday. In a staff memo, he wrote that his “philosophy of leadership” and “understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes” differed in “fundamental ways” from the direction Defense Department leadership has set for the organization.
Senators Had Already Sought Answers on New Active-Duty Deputy
Lederer’s retirement announcement followed the Pentagon’s installation of an active-duty Navy officer, Capt. William Urban, as a new deputy publisher without consulting him. Three days before the firings, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wrote to Hegseth, arguing that “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 requested answers by Aug. 28, including who approved Urban’s appointment and what safeguards would prevent Pentagon interference in the paper’s editorial decisions.
Pentagon Issued New Restrictive Editorial Memo Same Day as Firings
A Pentagon memo issued Friday and approved by chief spokesman Sean Parnell stated that “Stripes must safeguard information by preventing the disclosure of classified information and controlled unclassified information, and by avoiding the publication of material” the department considers sensitive, according to CNN’s reporting on the document.
Firings Followed Months of Escalating Pentagon Pressure on the Paper
In January, Parnell wrote on X that Stars and Stripes would be “custom tailored to our warfighters,” focused on “warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability and ALL THINGS MILITARY,” with “no more repurposed DC gossip columns” or Associated Press reprints. The Pentagon fired the paper’s ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, in April after she said the changes were “to the detriment of the troops who rely on the newspaper for complete coverage.” Smith has since filed suit challenging her dismissal. A March memo the Pentagon described as a “modernization” effort further tightened editorial oversight of the outlet.
Firings Came Weeks After Paper’s USS Lincoln Reporting
The dismissals came roughly two weeks after Stars and Stripes reported on an apparent suicide connected to the USS Abraham Lincoln’s extended deployment, according to Slavin, a period during which the paper had also drawn attention for coverage of broader supply and morale problems aboard the carrier.
Urban Says He Is Committed to Editorial Independence
In an open letter posted to the Stars and Stripes website the day of the firings, Urban wrote that he understood himself to be “part of a team, committed to editorially independent journalism that best serves our most important customer,” meaning service members and their families. Urban, who has more than 20 years of Navy public affairs experience but no formal journalism background, said he could not comment on whether he would become the paper’s next publisher and said he planned to focus on expanding the outlet’s digital coverage.
Press Freedom Groups Call for Reversal
National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr. called Slavin’s firing “another brazen attempt by the Pentagon to dictate coverage of the military” and said it should be immediately reversed, adding that the firing “should concern every journalist and every member of the U.S. military who depends on independent reporting.”
Firings Fit Broader Pattern of Administration Tension With Press
The Stars and Stripes dismissals arrive amid a broader pattern of friction between the Trump administration and news organizations, including sharply reduced Pentagon press access and separate legal and policy disputes involving The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and The New York Times, as well as the administration’s use of the FCC in disputes with broadcast networks.