Ousted Stars and Stripes Publisher Lashes Out After Judge Sides with Pentagon Over Firings: ‘We Have a Right to Give Our Personal Opinion!’

Former Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer said he and two fired journalists will continue legally battling the Pentagon after a judge refused to stop their terminations.

Lederer joined Jacob Soboroff on MS NOW’s Connect on Saturday morning following the Thursday decision U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, in which he refused to grant temporary restraining orders to Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, and Middle East reporter Lara Korte.

The three filed suit against the federal government, saying they were unlawfully targeted over reporting about worsening conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln during the vessel’s recent extended deployment.

Lederer admitted there was a “high bar” to an emergency stay on their firings, but vowed this was only the “first step.”

“It doesn’t eliminate our basic suit. 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,” he said.

Lederer said he received communication from Sean Parnell, the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, who was apparently dissatisfied with reporting from Slavin and Korte. Lederer defended the pair and was later told to fire them in August, putting him in a position where he ultimately said he would resign his position.

He said he was “admonished” by Parnell for defending the journalists.

“I thought they were exercising their First Amendment rights, and I thought they were very responsible in their speech. He was not happy with that, and I was admonished for allowing them to do that,” Lederer said.

Lederer accused Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of wanting to push only “soundbites,” instead of responding to actual reporting.

Soboroff asked at one point if Hegseth wanted “propaganda” from the military paper. Lederer stopped short of calling it full-blown “propaganda,” but admitted it’s a “form of” it.

“I’ve not talked directly with Pete Hegseth, but I have had conversations with Sean Parnell, and Sean has told me that he has talked to Pete about it and what I understand about the direction is that they want more command information in there. They want information directly published and written by public affairs officials,” Lederer said.

“Isn’t that propaganda though?” Soboroff asked.

“So in my mind, public affairs is not necessarily propaganda, but it’s a form of it,” Lederer explained. “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.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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