Publisher Max Lederer, editor Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte say they are considering next steps with attorneys
Page B1From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 8 September 2026
Reporter tells CBS they don't work for the Pentagon; Pentagon fires them, judge signs off.
As it ran on the front
Stars and Stripes' editorial independence, the buffer between the military newspaper and the military it covers, dies this month at a federal courthouse in Washington. It was old enough that most readers assumed it was permanent, which is what people assume about load-bearing walls until the wrecking ball arrives with paperwork.
The trouble started, as these things do, with a sentence. In July, one of the paper's staffers told CBS Sunday Morning that they worked for Stars and Stripes — not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker. It was the kind of thing a reporter says without thinking twice, because it used to be true without anyone having to say it out loud. The Pentagon apparently thought otherwise, and by September 4 was accusing two of its staffers of insubordination, that sentence among the reasons given.…
…(cont) By then the clock was already running. On August 29, with three staffers facing dismissal and a restraining order on the table, the Pentagon agreed to a one-week delay — not a reprieve, a scheduling accommodation, long enough for the lawyers on both sides to find their seats. On September 2 the Justice Department filed its defense of the firings, pushing back on the staffers' claim that the terminations were retaliation for the paper's coverage of conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. On September 5, Judge Trevor McFadden declined to halt the firings, ruling the staffers were unlikely to succeed on their First Amendment claim. On September 8 he cleared the Pentagon to proceed outright. Publisher Max Lederer, editor Erik Slavin, and reporter Lara Korte say they are considering next steps with attorneys, which is the sentence people file when the next step is mostly hope.
Born long enough ago that nobody left at the paper remembers signing its birth certificate; survived by any reporter who still treats "I work for the newsroom, not the institution" as a fact instead of a request. Preceded in death by the temporary restraining order, dead August 29; by the First Amendment claim, dead September 5.
In lieu of flowers, read Stars and Stripes while it still runs a byline that answers to an editor and not a policymaker.
“This is what they call a free press when they're the ones paying for it. You go on television and say out loud "I work for the newsroom, not the Pentagon" — and they write it down and use it as the firing paperwork. That's the whole con: the case against you is that you got caught telling the truth about who signs your checks.”
“This isn't retaliation, it's basic personnel management — the Pentagon can't have staff going on national television announcing they don't answer to their own employer, that's just — okay, that is literally the job description, forget I said that. The judge found the First Amendment claim unlikely to succeed, which makes this a court ruling, not a purge.”
The receipts
· Judge lets Pentagon move forward with firing Stars and Stripes journalists from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Pentagon hands Stars and Stripes journalists a one-week delay of dismissal from the morgue, 29 Aug 2026
· Federal judge declines to halt firings of Stars and Stripes staffers from the morgue, 5 Sep 2026
· Justice Department defends Pentagon’s proposed firings of Stars and Stripes staffers from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.