Pentagon Restores Press Freedom By Removing Independent Journalists

The Pentagon restored complete editorial independence to Stars and Stripes on Friday by dismissing the journalists most likely to exercise it. Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte received termination notices after raising concerns about possible Defense Department interference at the taxpayer-funded military newspaper. Slavin’s view that editorial independence might involve editors independently editing was rejected as an obsolete interpretation of both words.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s department has accordingly protected the publication from censorship by removing employees capable of identifying it. Under the Pentagon’s modernized press-freedom model, Stars and Stripes will remain independent so long as its reporters independently arrive at the conclusions preferred by Pentagon leadership. Editors may select any approved article, journalists may ask any pre-cleared question, and readers may reach any opinion already supplied in the official statement. The policy also eliminates the administrative burden of rebutting inconvenient coverage, since inconvenient coverage can now be intercepted before it inconveniences anyone.

President Donald Trump praised the personnel changes as a decisive advance for journalism. “Nobody has defended the free press more strongly than I have, and now Stars and Stripes will be free from negative reporters, nasty questions, bad headlines and all the other things that make newspapers unfair,” Trump said. The dismissals correct a longstanding structural defect in which a Pentagon-funded newspaper was somehow expected to scrutinize the Pentagon, an arrangement that encouraged service members to believe public institutions could tolerate criticism without treating it as enemy activity. With that vulnerability repaired, Stars and Stripes can concentrate on fearless military journalism whose access badges, adjectives and conclusions have all completed command review. The Pentagon has secured a fully independent press by ensuring it no longer acts independently.

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