Pentagon Fires Stars and Stripes Publisher for “Insubordination”

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The Pentagon moved Friday to fire three senior employees at the taxpayer-supported military newspaper Stars and Stripes, accusing them of “insubordination” amid an escalating battle over the publication’s direction.

Publisher Max Lederer, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte were each served with separation notices and given five days to appeal,

The stunning shake-up comes as the Trump administration works to overhaul the military publication, drag it into the 21st century, and eliminate the “woke distractions” that have infected institutions across the federal government.

Slavin and Korte claimed they were targeted over interviews they gave to CBS News without authorization for a segment that aired in July.

Slavin told CBS that the Pentagon accused him of insubordination after he publicly declared that any effort to control the newspaper’s reporting would cross a “red line.”

The firings follow months of tension between Pentagon officials and the newspaper’s entrenched leadership.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell previously announced plans to bring Stars and Stripes “into the 21st century” and refocus the outlet away from “woke distractions that syphon morale.”

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