In a move that can and should be construed as another direct attack on democracy and independent news-gathering, Pete Hegseth‘s Department of Defense moved to fire the top editor, outgoing publisher and a reporter with Stars and Stripes military publication. As Svetlana Shkolnikova and Rose L. Thayer report for that same newspaper, Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin was terminated for drawing lines in the sand about editorial independence.
The Pentagon on Friday moved to fire the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes as well as its retiring publisher and a civilian reporter who covers the Middle East for the news organization. Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief, said he was being fired for insubordination after stating in an interview last month that censorship of news for service members would constitute a red line in the Pentagon’s efforts to exert control over the newspaper. ‘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. He said he received a notice of proposed separation and is reviewing it.
Svetlana Shkolnikova & Rose L. Thayer, Stars and Stripes
A recent piece on CBS Sunday Morning featured a number of staff members who were the victims of Hegseth’s purge.
Slavin was named the paper’s top editor in September 2025. He joined Stars and Stripes in 2005 as a reporter in Japan and went on to embed with U.S. forces in Iraq, report in South Korea and oversee news operations in Europe and the Middle East. He said in the feature on CBS Sunday Morning that it was imperative for Stars and Stripes to provide independent news to troops. ‘If we can’t do that, if we were turned into something other than that, if we were public relations,’ he said, then that would be something on which he would be unwilling to compromise.
Svetlana Shkolnikova & Rose L. Thayer, Stars and Stripes
Middle East reporter Lara Korte and publisher Max D. Lederer Jr. were also let go—the latter after announcing his retirement on Tuesday.
As MS.NOW reported, the pressure on Stars and Stripes editorial team had been building for months: in January, job applicants were asked leading questions about their support for Trump’s anti-democratic, autocratic demands.
The firings and unprecedented-pressure campaign to exert editorial control over Stars and Stripes mirrors similar actions taken against Voice of America, spearheaded by disgraced-news anchor Kari Lake. Early on in Trump’s second regime, an executive order commanded the gutting of U.S. Agency for Global Media, Voice of America‘s parent company.
AUTHOR FOOTNOTE
To Donald’s personality cult, it’s not propaganda if traditionally independent publications and news outlets are brought to heel by hired hands and allies like Bari Weiss. If they could only step back and view this objectively: they are, quite literally, forcing “anti-woke” nonsense on an outlet they only partially control because hypersensitive fascists cannot handle true things floating in the ether.
Sean Parnell, Pentagon dolt tasked with “overhauling” Stars and Stripes to suit Nazi overlords, is not the most-reliable narrator. Credibly accused of domestic violence himself, Donald probably felt kismet with Mr. Sean, who would theoretically be rather keen to disappear mentions of truthful journalism of any kind. Anyways, the dismissal of ombudsman Jacqueline Smith in April started the ball rolling. (Smith is suing the department to be reinstated on First Amendment grounds.)
Cut to present day and Parnell is still wielding a “cult hatchet” to carve out another pound of flesh on Donald’s revenge tour.
Parnell’s stated goal was “content redirection” for Stars and Stripes, but what went down instead was the removal of nearly its entire leadership chain plus the ombudsman, who could be characterized as a “watchdog” in line with department inspectors general. I know, I know: personality cults are impervious to facts but they are still pesky markers: wide gap between Parnell’s stated “rationale” and the actual outcome (Friday Afternoon Massacre) is the type of contradiction made for history books.
Status‘ Jon Passantino called this op a “truth purge” so it’s 50/50 that America will still have books with actual history in the future.
SOURCES
- Stars and Stripes
- CBS Sunday Morning segment
- MS.NOW clip on YouTube
- MaddowBlog
- Status
