Three journalists who were fired by the Pentagon from a US government-funded news outlet sued the Department of Defense in federal court on Thursday, arguing their dismissals were illegal and violated their first amendment rights to free speech. The three journalists were all employees of Stars and Stripes, which their court filing calls “the U.S. military’s independent news source since the Civil War with a long history of editorial independence, free from news management or censorship by military command”. Max Lederer, the news outlet’s former publisher Max Lederer, Erik Slavin, the editor-in-chief, and Lara Korte, Middle East correspondent, allege the defense department and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, “are attempting to fire Plaintiffs for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations, its need to reach all servicepersons, and in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S.
Abraham Lincoln during its extended tour of duty in the Mid-East”. Slavin and Korte said they were dismissed for supposed “insubordination” during an interview with CBS News in which they objected to potential censorship by the US military. According to the complaint, no one at the Pentagon took “immediate action” after the interview aired on 5 July.
The journalists allege that “the spark that moved [the Pentagon] to act” was an 11 August news report about the conditions on the troubled USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been supporting US military operations in the middle east for nearly nine months. Abraham Lincoln,” the complaint says. The day after that article was published by Stars and Stripes, the suit contends, Lederer was ordered to fire Slavin and Korte – five and a half weeks after the CBS News interview.
Lederer ultimately declined to comply with the order. Lederer took this step because he did not want to be part of Defendants’ scheme to illegally punish Mr. Korte for exercising their First Amendment rights.” Lederer was dismissed shortly after announcing his impending retirement, effective at the end of September.
He said the Pentagon had installed a new deputy publisher, an active duty service member, under him at the newspaper without his prior knowledge. The Pentagon did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday’s lawsuit.
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