Pentagon Installs Its Own Spokesman as Acting Publisher of Stars and Stripes

The Pentagon has named Christian Devine, executive director of its public affairs office, as acting publisher of Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has published continuously since World War II and describes itself as operating under First Amendment principles independent of the Defense Department.

Devine will keep his job as executive director and principal advisor in the Pentagon’s public affairs shop while he runs Stars and Stripes on an interim basis, splitting time between the two roles until a permanent publisher is found.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the appointment to Fox News Digital. “The Pentagon is proud to appoint Chris Devine to serve as acting publisher of Stars and Stripes,” Parnell said. “As a former Marine Corps colonel and a seasoned public affairs leader, Chris brings unmatched expertise, strategic vision and a commitment to ensuring Stars and Stripes maintains editorial independence while delivering exclusive, mission-focused reporting that directly serves America’s war fighters and their families. In this interim role, he will provide decisive leadership to modernize Stars and Stripes and to strengthen its mission.”

Devine himself called the newspaper “a dynamic media organization with a prestigious history and purpose” and said he hopes to “lend a strong arm during the interim to the men and women who continue to contribute to its notable legacy.”

The Pentagon funds roughly half of Stars and Stripes’ annual budget, according to the paper’s own website — a financial relationship that has long been central to arguments over how much editorial independence the outlet actually has.

A Year of Upheaval

The appointment caps a year of turmoil at the publication. In January, Parnell announced on X that the Department of War intended to overhaul the paper’s direction. “The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters,” he wrote. “We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century. We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

Parnell added that the paper would be “custom tailored to our warfighters,” focusing on “warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY,” and pledged there would be “no more repurposed DC gossip columns; no more Associated Press reprints.”

That overhaul included firing longtime publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte in August. A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital the firings followed Slavin and Korte’s unauthorized appearance in a CBS Sunday Morning segment examining the Pentagon’s efforts to remake the paper, and Lederer’s refusal to dismiss them when Pentagon leadership directed him to.

The three have since sued the Pentagon over their terminations, arguing in court filings that they face “imminent retaliation and termination in violation of their First Amendment and statutory rights.” In September, US District Judge Trevor McFadden denied their request for a temporary restraining order to reverse the firings, finding they had failed to “carry their significant burden to show that they are clearly entitled to a preliminary injunction.”

With Devine now overseeing both the Pentagon’s own messaging operation and the newsroom that is supposed to report independently on the military, the question of how much editorial distance remains between the Defense Department and Stars and Stripes is likely to keep drawing scrutiny from press-freedom advocates and the fired journalists’ pending lawsuit alike.