[UPDATE] 3 fired Stars and Stripes journalists will press their lawsuit after a judge refused to block the firings
Publisher, editor-in-chief and a reporter lost the injunction but not the case.
A federal judge upheld the firing of three Stars and Stripes journalists. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, ruled that publisher Max Lederer, editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte lost their jobs for giving pre-approved CBS interviews as public employees, not for protected speech. Lederer says the three will keep suing.
PREVIOUSLY
- Aug. 11 — Stars and Stripes published an article on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, which its staff then discussed in CBS interviews the paper had cleared in advance.
- Sep. 5 — A federal judge declined to halt the firings of the paper's publisher, editor-in-chief and Middle East reporter.
- McFadden: the firings followed "pre-approved interviews on their paper's behalf in which they largely toed the company line" and do not "clearly offend the first amendment."