Former Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer on Saturday said he and two other journalists will keep fighting the Pentagon after a judge refused to stop their terminations, which followed the military newspaper’s reporting on horrid conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Lederer joined MS NOW after he, Middle East reporter Lara Korte and editor-in-chief Erik Slavin were fired for insubordination by the Pentagon, which partially funds the outlet, after the latter objected to potential censorship by the U.S. military during a CBS News interview.
“I thought they were exercising their First Amendment rights, and I thought they were very responsible in their speech,” Lederer told “Connect” host Jacob Soboroff. “He was not happy with that, and I was admonished for allowing them to do that.”
The “he” in question is chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who was purportedly unhappy with Slavin and Korte reporting on the mental health crisis aboard the Lincoln stemming from an extended deployment in the Middle East due to the Iran war.
The Lincoln docked Wednesday in Thailand after the carrier was at sea for more than 250 days and multiple U.S. military service members reportedly tried to jump overboard — a scandal chronicled by Stars and Stripes and the Military Times.
Parnell was apparently also infuriated with the CBS News interview that aired on July 5.
Lederer revealed Saturday that Parnell’s principal deputy Andrew Brey told him in an email in August to fire Slavin and Korte for “providing their personal opinion,” and that he replied, demanding to know why their comments weren’t protected by the First Amendment.
Lederer said he didn’t get any answers and “was told immediately just to fire them.”
All three were fired after Lederer informed the Pentagon that he would rather resign than oust Slavin and Korte, which led the trio to sue Parnell, Brey, the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to challenge their terminations.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump, ruled Thursday that they were unlikely to prove the Pentagon violated their free speech rights, and refused to grant them restraining orders to block their terminations.
Lederer said the ruling “doesn’t eliminate our basic suit.”
He continued, “And our basic suit is that we believe under the First Amendment, we have a right to give our personal opinion, as any other government employee does or any citizen does, about what’s happening and what we’re experiencing and what’s occurring.”
Lederer noted that he hasn’t spoken about the Pentagon’s own gripes with Hegseth — who said reports on the conditions aboard the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented” — but also said the Pentagon would likely just push “soundbites” if it weren’t for proper reporting.
“Sean has told me that he has talked to Pete about it, and what I understand the direction is, they want more command information in there,” Lederer told Soboroff. “They want information directly published and written by public affairs officials.”
Soboroff then asked, “Isn’t that propaganda, though?”
“So in my mind, public affairs is not necessarily propaganda, but it’s a form of it,” said Lederer.
He continued, “I think it’s the definition of presenting your opinion to the audience. If it’s factually based on the public affairs office, then it’s just one side of the story. But if it goes beyond that to provide a particular viewpoint, then I think it does become propaganda.”