1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

Dear Members of Congress, Today, the Pentagon fired the editor-in-chief, publisher, and a reporter from Stars and Stripes — the United States military newspaper founded in 1861 — for insubordination. Their crime? Saying out loud that they work for the troops, not the administration. Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin was fired for stating in a CBS interview that Pentagon censorship of military news would constitute a “red line.” Reporter Lara Korte put it plainly in her termination statement: “I was fired for insubordination after I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes — not the Pentagon, not the administration, and not any policy maker.” Congress itself authorized Stars and Stripes to remain editorially independent despite Pentagon funding — a protection enshrined in law for 165 years, through every war this country has fought. That protection exists precisely because service members deserve accurate, uncensored news. Not propaganda. Not content “custom tailored” to administration priorities, as the Pentagon demanded in January when it announced it was purging the paper of what it called “woke distractions.” This did not happen in a vacuum. The Pentagon had already stopped Stars and Stripes from publishing Associated Press wire reports. Job applicants were being asked how they would advance President Trump’s policy priorities. And now the editor, publisher, and a Middle East correspondent have all received termination notices for the act of saying — publicly — that a free press serves the troops, not the government. This is what the death of a free press looks like. Not a dramatic shutdown. A firing here. A censored wire service there. An editor removed for telling the truth about who he works for. We demand that Congress immediately investigate the firings of Erik Slavin, Max Lederer, and Lara Korte, reinstate the editorial independence protections Congress itself guaranteed, and make clear that the Pentagon does not have the authority to turn a 165-year-old independent military newspaper into a government mouthpiece. The First Amendment does not have a military exception. Respectfully,