Three staffers at Stars and Stripes, including the military publication’s publisher and editor in chief, sued the Defense Department, saying their recent firings by the Pentagon were illegal and violated their free-speech protections under the First Amendment.
In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal district court in Washington, publisher Max Lederer, editor in chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte claimed that their firings last week for “insubordination” were retaliatory in nature and violated federal administrative law.
After a Pentagon official, Andrew Brey, emailed Lederer last week and asked him to fire Slavin and Korte for participating in a CBS News interview, he declined to do so and instead submitted plans to retire, The Washington Post previously reported.
On Friday, all three were fired, with the dismissals to take effect after five business days. Lederer confirmed in an interview with The Post on Thursday that he was fired for refusing to fire Slavin and Korte.
In their lawsuit filed Thursday, the three asked a federal judge to halt their firings.
The dismissals marked the most drastic escalation of tensions between the Pentagon and Stars and Stripes, a storied publication that has long been granted editorial independence from the government’s military and civilian leaders.
Starting in January, a top Pentagon official derided the publication as “woke,” introduced new editorial restrictions and a refocus on “warfighting,” canceled contracts with news services, and fired its ombudsman, a role charged by Congress with defending the paper’s independence.
The Pentagon already faces two First Amendment lawsuits over its recent actions at Stars and Stripes: one from the ombudsman, Jacqueline Smith, who sued over her firing and alleged retaliation; the other by two board members, who sued over the March restrictions, alleging illegal censorship.
In the interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Korte asserted that she worked for Stars and Stripes, not the Pentagon. Slavin, meanwhile, said any hypothetical censorship of the military newspaper would cross a red line.
“I stand by the principle that Stars and Stripes should remain independent for service members,” Slavin told The Washington Post shortly after his firing.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said the firings amounted to “political interference and intimidation.”
In a statement issued following the firings last week, Blumenthal said he would call on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on which he also serves, to hold hearings on the matter. “This shameless censorship will only continue to erode veteran and servicemember credibility and trust in the newspaper, whose independence is essential,” he said.
Stars and Stripes was first published during the Civil War and has continuously reported on and for the U.S. military community since World War II. Although Stars and Stripes staffers are government employees and the newspaper gets some funding from the Defense Department, it has for years enjoyed editorial independence from the Pentagon.
This month, the Defense Department installed an active-duty Navy captain, William Urban, as deputy publisher, raising fears of a military takeover at a publication independent from military civilian leadership. Senate Democrats and board members expressed concern that his placement could further erode the publication’s independence and that Urban could be forced to follow military orders to dictate content.
On Friday, the same day as the firings, the Defense Department issued an “instruction” saying that the newspaper “must safeguard information by preventing the disclosure of classified information and controlled unclassified information, and by avoiding the publication of material that would adversely affect national security.”
Urban declined to comment on the litigation. A spokesman for the Defense Department also declined to comment.
‘I have some anger’
Slavin said the lawsuit is intended to safeguard the newspaper’s mission to report independently on the U.S. military and ensure civilian military journalists can do their jobs without retaliation.
“Our goal is to protect the rights of service members and their families to a free and independent press,” he told The Washington Post shortly after the suit was filed. “That’s why we filed this. Stars and Stripes has been doing that for generations. That independence is essential to keeping military communities fully and accurately informed,” Slavin added.
The plaintiffs also filed a temporary restraining order that would block the Pentagon from firing him, Lederer and Korte.
“Our goal is to protect the rights of service members and their families to a free and independent press,” Lederer, Slavin and Korte wrote in a joint statement. “Stars and Stripes has served them for generations, and that independence is essential to keeping military communities fully and accurately informed.”
They continued, “This lawsuit is about safeguarding that mission and ensuring our civilian and military journalists can do their jobs without retaliation.”
In an interview with The Post on Thursday, Lederer said he felt disappointed in the Pentagon’s leadership and angry about how it has treated Stars and Stripes this year.
“I never expected that I would be dealing with leadership who didn’t value the importance of trusted, impartial journalism to the military community,” Lederer said. “I thought what Stars and Stripes did would always be seen in that light and would be supported. I don’t believe that is felt today. I don’t believe that credible and impartial journalism is what is driving the leadership.”
It goes beyond disappointment, he said: “I have some anger: anger that my people have been put into this situation, anger at how Lara and Erik are being treated, and consequently, how the organization as a whole is being treated.”
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