Ousted Publisher Says Hegseth’s Pentagon Ordered Him To Fire Journalists, Made Clear ‘You Have No First Amendment Rights’

The former publisher of Stars and Stripes, an independent military newspaper, joined a panel discussion on Friday with two of his former employees he refused to fire after being ordered to do so at the Pentagon.

Publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and reporter Lara Korte, who are now suing the government, were asked by MS NOW Pentagon correspondent Priya Sridhar about the events that led to their exit and their lawsuit claiming the Pentagon unlawfully retaliated against them for defending the military newspaper’s editorial independence and its critical coverage of conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

“Max, I want to talk about what happened in August when you were directed to fire the two people sitting right next to you. Did you immediately know that you were not going to follow through with that, or was it a difficult decision? What led you to say, ‘You know what, I’m just going to resign, because I’m not going to do that?’” Sridhar asked.

“There were a couple of things wrong when I received the direction to terminate them. First, I don’t believe you can direct a supervisor on what they should think and do. You can share with them what you believe the right rules are and give that supervisor an opportunity to consider them and have that conversation,” Lederer said, adding:

So my initial step was to push back and say, “I don’t understand the foundation of your conclusion that they were insubordinate and that they were not using their First Amendment rights to speak their personal opinions.”

I don’t believe that when we put on the uniform or work for the government, we give up all of our First Amendment rights. We do have the right to speak out and say what we believe is right or wrong, good or bad, about how we serve. Their disciplinary action was basically saying you have no First Amendment rights. It’s not consistent, to me, to fire somebody who’s exercising their First Amendment rights when their job is to speak for other people who are also exercising theirs. It didn’t make any sense to me, so I went back and asked those questions.

None of those questions were answered. I was just told, “Do as you’re instructed and serve these notices.” At that point, I said, “I’m done.” I had been trying for months to work within the system to make things better and to keep Stripes on the right path, but I knew I would no longer be able to do that. So my decision was to refuse to sign those letters and to retire.

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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