They want their jobs back and so the lawsuits have begun. This time it involves three butthurt Stars and Stripes ‘reporters’ who were fired for insubordination and other issues.

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.

Keep in mind, the Department of War had, months prior, tasked all of the DOD with changing their viewpoint. Well, guess what? That also involves the Pentagon funded Stars and Stripes media publication. 

Well, we certainly know Jen Psaki, and that woman can put a giant sock in it. 

Again, the parent company of the Stars and Stripes is… the U.S. government. Therefore, that publication is owned by our government. 

But that doesn’t matter to the butthurt crowd who was fired and are now demanding their jobs back.

The lawsuit escalates a fight over the editorial independence of a military newspaper partially funded through congressional appropriations.

Erik Slavin, former editor-in-chief of the paper, told Axios he was fired for “insubordination” over a controversial July 5 interview with CBS News. He was removed alongside publisher Max Lederer and Middle East reporter Lara Korte.

In his interview, Slavin said hypothetical censorship at Stars and Stripes would be a “red line” for him.

Context: Those comments came a month after two members of the paper’s advisory board sued the Pentagon on First Amendment grounds over new restrictions on the outlet.

A few weeks later, the paper’s former ombudsman filed her own suit, arguing she was fired in retaliation for criticizing the Pentagon’s new policies.

“Our goal is to protect the rights of service members and their families to a free and independent press. Stars and Stripes has served them for generations, and that independence is essential to keeping military communities fully and accurately informed,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

“This lawsuit is about safeguarding that mission and ensuring our civilian and military journalists can do their jobs without retaliation.”

What their current reporting jobs entailed was hit pieces regarding the troops serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln. 

Which involved tons of teeth gnashing and hand-wringing by the helicopter families over the 260 days of deployment. 

CRY ME A RIVER. 

This is what you signed up for. The orders will send you where you need to go. And yes, there will be times that the suckitude is massive. Embrace is and quit whining to your parents and the media. GROW UP

As for those key Stars and Stripes reporters? You screwed the pooch. 

Those reporters messed up, probably in more ways than we know. But what they did report on and HOW they reported it flew in the face of their employment contract with the Pentagon. Thus the whining lawsuit. 

The suit asks the court to halt the terminations as unlawful, arguing they amounted to retaliation over unflattering coverage of a Navy deployment as part of a broader attempt to censor the press. The three plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers for Good Government, Government Accountability Project and the Yale School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic

“Our goal is to protect the rights of service members and their families to a free and independent press,” the three journalists said in a joint statement provided to Military.com. “This lawsuit is about safeguarding that mission and ensuring our civilian and military journalists can do their jobs without retaliation.”

Again, your employer is… THE PENTAGON. They are your boss. Which, I believe, means even the reporters are beholden to certain types of UCMJ conduct. Which holds direct implications for reporting. 

Except today’s “journalists” want all the cake and then some so they can not only report with impunity, they’ll have unfettered access. Which leads to massive security implications. Something they refuse to address. 

In June, the Pentagon deemed its press office a classified space and off-limits to journalists, ostensibly to make room for speechwriters.
“The Defense Department’s move to control Stars and Stripes is in step with its move against the Pentagon Press Corps,” David Schulz, director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, one of the organizations that filed the suit, said in a statement.

“This Administration does not want an effective or independent press,” Schulz said. Its crackdown means the public today has less information about our military’s plans, purposes, actions, or accomplishments than at any point in modern history, even as active combat operations are being pursued in multiple arenas across the globe.”

The newsroom at Stars and Stripes was told that their reporting needed to ensure the safeguard of the troops and any military information. Evidently the Stars and Stripes rag thought they were exempt from the rules their boss laid down. And herein enters the FOFA phase of their lives.

Feature Photo Credit: military press via iStock, cropped and modified