Last week, the Pentagon fired three journalists at military newspaper Stars and Stripes: editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, publisher Max Lederer, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte. It was a little more than a week after the paper reported on a mental health crisis among the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which had spent more than 250 days at sea in support of Iran war operations.
“We’re very proud of that reporting,” Slavin told me in an interview on Wednesday. “We were the first to report many of the details on what was going on aboard the carrier, and that was the product of several weeks of interviews with sailors, with their families, and we were very thorough with it. The administration didn’t single out us in particular, but they certainly did make it known, their displeasure, about the reporting on Lincoln. Approximately ten days later, I received my separation notice. The notice does not state that as a reason. However, it does make me question why it took so long to receive that notice.”
On Thursday, the journalists pushed back in court, suing the Pentagon for violating their First Amendment rights. They allege that a Pentagon official requested that Lederer dismiss Slavin and Korte for insubordination on August 12, the day after the Stars and Stripes’ report on the Lincoln. Days later, when Lederer was again pressed to fire the pair, he announced his retirement instead. All three were subsequently fired, with the Pentagon accusing them of “insubordination and other violations of DoD regulations,” per the suit. The journalists allege they were fired “for speaking up as private citizens in support of the press’s freedom to cover military operations” and “in retaliation for their publication of a news report on deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.”
