1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

The Pentagon's firing of Stars and Stripes editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer, and reporter Lara Korte is a direct attack on press freedom, and I want you to act. Investigate and push back against the Defense Department's takeover of this publication before its editorial independence is gone entirely. Slavin was fired for insubordination after publicly stating that censoring news for service members would be a "red line." That's not insubordination — that's a journalist doing his job. The Pentagon installed a new deputy publisher without notifying Lederer, then fired the paper's ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, whose entire role was to protect editorial independence. This is a pattern of deliberate suppression. The First Amendment doesn't stop applying because the audience wears a uniform. Service members deserve accurate, independent reporting as much as any American citizen.