Former CBS News and Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge testified on Thursday about the “journalistic rape” by CBS when the network seized her reporting files upon her dismissal.
“I was locked out of my emails and I was locked out of the office. CBS News seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files including confidential source information,” Herridge said in response to questioning from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.)
“When the network of Walter Cronkite seizes your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism,” Herridge emphasized.
“I can only speak for myself. When my records were seized, I felt it was a journalistic rape.”
A veteran, award-winning investigative reporter, Herridge is noted for her reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story and matters of U.S. national security. A federal judge is currently holding Herridge in contempt for refusing to disclosure confidential sources used for a series of Fox News stories on a Chinese scientist under investigation by the FBI.
CBS fired Herridge in February as part of mass layoffs and immediately seized her files upon her dismissal. The network eventually returned the files after widespread public outcry and pressure from SAG-AFTRA, the powerful media and communications union. Fox News continues to pay her legal fees, and Herridge thanked the union for supporting her after she was let go.
While at CBS, Herridge ran into “roadblocks” during her coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story, the New York Post reported.
“Congressman I reported out the facts of the story,” Herridge said of her reporting on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive and the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.
“You sure did!” Jordan quipped back.
“I called balls and strikes,” Herridge remarked.
A spokesperson for CBS News directed National Review to a letter the company wrote to Jordan in late February giving the network’s side of the Herridge situation.
“Contrary to several false press reports, absolutely none of Ms. Herridge’s files were ‘seized,’ the letter reads.
“Rather, CBS acted to secure and protect the material in Ms. Herridge’s office. Promptly after it notified Ms. Herridge of her termination, company Human Resources collected all of Ms. Herridge’s apparent personal belongings in her office – clothing, books, awards and the like – and returned them to her. Human Resources entered the office to retrieve these belongings, but at no time did anyone review any of the files or other materials in it.”
Herridge testified before the Judiciary Committee at a hearing focused on the value of the First Amendment and protecting journalistic sources. Veteran journalist Sharyl Atkisson, SAG-AFTRA executive Mary Cavallaro and First Amendment expert Nadine Farid Johnson also delivered testimony.
Atkisson notoriously left CBS News in 2014 after two decades at the network for what she describes as favoritism towards former president Barack Obama. Both Atkisson and Herridge warned of the potential damage to investigative journalism if confidential sources cannot be guaranteed protection.
“If confidential sources are not protected, I fear investigative journalism is dead. Each day, I feel the weight of this responsibility,” Herridge warned, referring to her legal battle.
Atkisson considered how the inability to protect sources could reduce the impact of hard-hitting investigative stories.
“So it makes sense to ask: What’s the impact if we can no longer assure our sources that we can protect their identities?” she asked. Atkisson testified about her experience with alleged government intrusion into her work computer during her time at CBS and her subsequent legal battle against the Justice Department.
The participants all touted the Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan legislation designed to protect journalists and their sources from government encroachment. The Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying (PRESS) Act unanimously passed the House earlier this year and has yet to be taken up by the senate.
“This long overdue legislation represents a significant leap forward not just for journalists, but for the sanctity of journalism itself, and for the Constitutional right to freedom of the press,” Cavallaro said of the PRESS Act.
The legislation would prevent reporters from being coerced into giving up sources and prevent government agencies from abusing subpoena power to obtain journalists’ emails and phone records.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told the New York Post the legislation could end up at President Biden’s desk later this year.