Viewers and journalists alike slammed CBS News over this week’s firing of Catherine Herridge — an award-winning senior correspondent who sources said had run into “internal roadblocks” on the network as she covered the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The veteran investigative reporter, who has a First Amendment case that’s being closely watched by journalists nationwide, was amongst 20 CBS News staffers who lost their jobs Tuesday as a part of a broader purge of 800 employees across parent company Paramount Global, sources told The Post.
Contained in the halls of CBS News, staffers were outraged and bewildered by Herridge’s ouster, in accordance with sources near the Tiffany Network.
“People can’t make sense of this decision,” said a source, noting that staffers contained in the network’s Washington bureau where Herridge worked are “shocked and dismayed” that CBS would oust a journalist who “brought credibility” to the corporate.
Viewers and journalists slammed CBS for ousting senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge on Tuesday. Catherine Herridge/X
Herridge got here to CBS in 2019 to be a balanced voice, covering each side of the aisle, after having served as chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News.
But Herridge’s most up-to-date assigment — covering the Hunter Biden probe — put her under a microscope on the left-leaning network, The Post has learned.
It was well understood on Capitol Hill that Herridge was among the many first to receive suggestions in regards to the Hunter Biden investigation but she bumped into “internal roadblocks at CBS News,” sources said.
In 2021, CBS News brought in Matt Mosk to guide the network’s investigative unit from ABC News where he led coverage on the Mueller investigation and Trump impeachments. Mosk also served as senior investigative producer on the 2021 Hulu documentary “Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier.”
The Steele Dossier, which has been debunked, accused former President Donald Trump’s campaign of conspiring with Russians to tilt the results of the 2016 election.
Herridge’s reporting on Hunter Biden had been roadblocked internally,
The Post has learned.
Insiders said Herridge also clashed with CBS News President Ingrid-Ciprian Matthews, a sharp-elbowed executive who was investigated in 2021 over favoritism and discriminatory hiring and management practices, as previously reported by The Post.
CBS News declined to comment.
Writer and journalist Michael Shellenberger, an authority on censorship and free speech, called Herridge a “hero” on X, saying she recently has been “facing bankruptcy and even prison for shielding her sources.”
“CBS execs have behaved cowardly,” Shellenberger wrote. “Shame on them.”
Meghan McCain, daughter of late Arizona senator John McCain, also weighed in, calling Herridge a “national treasure.”
CBS News president Ingrid-Ciprian Matthews had clashed with Herridge, sources said. Getty Images
“I can’t inform you what an insane move it’s for @CBSNews to let her go — particularly during an election yr,” McCain wrote.
Others speculated that her exit was linked to recent reporting that President Biden can have kept evidence that he had foreign business dealings while in office.
Collin Rugg, who co-owns conservative website Trending Politics, posted on X: “Herridge was fired just hours after she reported on how Biden can have ‘retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings’… Wild.”
Follow the most recent on the The Post’s coverage of the turmoil at Paramount and CBS:
In 2022, CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani signaled that the network was looking to usher in more Republican voices ahead of the midterm elections that yr.
“Having the ability to ensure that that we’re having access to each side of the aisle is a priority because we all know the Republicans are going to take over, more than likely, within the midterms,” Khemlani told staff on the time, in accordance with a recording obtained by The Washington Post. “Quite a lot of the folks that we’re bringing in are helping us by way of access to that side of the equation.”
CBS News laid off 20 employees earlier this week, as a part of sweeping layoffs at parent-Paramount Global. Getty Images
While the shift ruffled feathers amongst a few of the left-leaning rank and file, insiders at CBS News said that mandate got here from top brass, including Shari Redstone, the chair of Paramount Global.
Herridge’s departure comes because the journalist faces heat for not complying with US District Judge Christopher Cooper’s order to disclose how she learned a couple of federal probe right into a Chinese American scientist who operated a graduate program in Virginia.
Critics ripped CBS for ousting Herridge when she is fighting for the rights of journalists, with one CBS News insider calling the network’s decision “tone deaf.”
Herridge may soon be held in contempt of court for not divulging her source for an investigative piece she penned in 2017 when she worked for Fox News and be ordered to personally pay fines that would total as much as $5,000 a day.
Herridge’s hire was a part of a push on the network to usher in more balanced reporting and bi-partisan voices, and a part of a mandate from Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone. Getty Images
A source near the situation said Fox News is paying for Herridge’s legal counsel.
Herridge “brought balance to the reporting and is facing possible jailing over her refusal to reveal her sources,” Jonathan Turley, Shapiro chair of public interest law at George Washington University, posted on X. “CBS needs to be standing along with her and the journalistic values that she is fighting to guard.”
The scientist, Yanping Chen, had been investigated for years on suspicions she can have lied on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program, in accordance with Herridge’s report.
Chen is suing the FBI for damages claiming the leaked information was par of a campaign to break her fame. Federal prosecutors ended their six-year probe of Chen without bringing charges.
