All posts tagged "Stars And Stripes"

A reporter said she was fired by the Department of Defense for saying she works for Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon.

In a Friday post on X, journalist Lara Korte, who covered the Middle East for the Stars and Stripes, announced her firing and denounced the Pentagon's treatment of the military paper, which has faced increasing pressure from the Trump administration's DoD.

"Today, I was informed that the Department of Defense is firing me for insubordination," Korte wrote. "I told a CBS reporter that I work for Stars and Stripes – not the Pentagon, not any administration, and not any policy maker."...

Pentagon officials are reportedly considering firing the longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes before he can retire this fall.

According to a Wednesday report by CBS News, Max Lederer announced to his colleagues that he plans to retire on September 30 after 19 years as the publisher of Stars and Stripes. Lederer cited fundamental differences with the Trump administration for his retirement.

However, Pentagon officials have discussed firing Lederer before his planned retirement as part of an effort to overhaul the military news outlet, which is partly funded by American taxpayers....

The ombudsman of the Pentagon's paper of record warned that her sudden firing doesn't bode well for the publication's future independence.

"There's a very real threat," Jaqueline Smith, the Stars and Stripes ombudsman who was fired on Wednesday, said on "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Friday about the attack on the editorial independence of the military newspaper. "The Pentagon is taking steps to try and control the message through various ways."

Smith said that could include the Pentagon deciding "to remove the requirement that the publisher is a civilian" and putting a member of the military in charge of Stars and Stripes. The top brass are even "prohibiting use of syndicated material," like articles published in other outlets, "which affects what readers can get," Smith said....