‘JOURNALISTIC RAPE’
Axed ‘Hunter’ journo rips CBS on seized files
Catherine Herridge — the acclaimed CBS News investigative journalist known for her reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal — accused the network of “journalistic rape” for seizing her files after she was fired during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday.
Breaking her silence for the first time since her controversial dismissal in February, Herridge called the move by her former bosses an assault on journalism.
“When my records were seized, I felt it was a journalistic rape,” Herridge testified at the hearing, titled “Fighting for a Free Press: Protecting Journalists and their Sources.”
“When the network of Walter Cronkite seizes your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism.”
The Emmy-award winning reporter — who’s in the middle of a First Amendment case being closely watched by journalists nationwide — also said confiscating her files could have put her sources at risk.
‘Crossed a red line’
“CBS News’ decision to seize my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization,” Herridge said.
“Multiple sources said they were concerned that by working with me to expose government corruption and misconduct, they would be identified and exposed.”
Herridge, who had spent nearly five years at the network after being hired away from Fox News, was among 20 CBS staffers let go as part of a larger purge of 800 employees by parent company Paramount.
While some sources called the seizure “unprecedented” at CBS News, the network insisted in a written response to the committee that the episode was not unusual.
CBS said no one had rifled through the files and that they were eventually locked inside Herridge’s former office in Washington before being returned after outcry from her union, SAG-AFTRA.
CBS News didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked Herridge if she wrote critical stories about Hunter Biden, the laptop, the Biden family, the business operation and the Biden brand.
Herridge replied: “I reported out the facts of the story. I called balls and strikes.”
“You sure did,” Jordan said. “You reported the facts and then CBS fired you!”
During her time at CBS, Herridge had encountered roadblocks from higher-ups over her Hunter Biden coverage, sources had told The Post.
She also clashed with CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who was investigated and cleared in 2021 over accusations of favoritism and discriminatory hiring and management practices, as The Post previously reported.
In addition to Herridge, SAGAFTRA chief news and broadcast officer Mary Cavallaro testified Thursday about the union’s negotiations with CBS to return Herridge’s confidential materials.
The House Judiciary Committee also heard testimony from former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who quit the network in 2014 over claims that CBS killed stories that put then-President Barack Obama in a bad light.
Attkisson told the committee her critical reporting of the government resulted in her phone being tapped.