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 ۵ July.
“After all, the anodyne statements endorsing Stripes’ editorial independence were entirely consistent with DoD’s own longstanding insistence on Stripes’ independence,” reads the complaint.
The journalists allege that “the spark that moved [the Pentagon] to act” was an ۱۱ 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.
“The article broke a major story about deteriorating conditions aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln,” the complaint says. “It reported that the aircraft carrier’s ۵,۰۰۰ Sailors have endured food and water shortages, disrupted mail service, long workdays, and little time off for months on end, and that the long deployment and physical hardships were impacting Sailors’ physical and mental health”.
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 did not deliver the notices,” the suit explains. “Instead, he decided then and there to retire, and informed the Stripes’ staff via email. Mr. Lederer took this step because he did not want to be part of Defendants’ scheme to illegally punish Mr. Slavin and Ms. 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.
“Stripes’ historical editorial independence is critical to its core mission of gathering and providing unbiased, credible journalism to the U.S. military community, particularly servicemembers and their families stationed overseas,” the suit also says.
The Pentagon did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday’s lawsuit.
