After onetime Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge got laid off from CBS, the Media Research Center rushed to her defense — inadvertently confirming that Herridge is a biased reporter who pushed right-wing narratives. The MRC kept up its attacks on her former CBS bosses in a Feb. 28 post by Curtis Houck:
Once again continuing to report out the sudden firing of the well-respected Catherine Herridge from CBS News, the New York Post’s Alexandra Steigrad reported late Tuesday afternoon that Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, the new and extremely woke CBS News president, was selected as one of “13 honorees at the 33rd annual First Amendment Awards” set for March 9 in D.C. by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA).
This was despite the fact that, as Steigrad noted, Ciprian-Matthews had clashed with Herridge in the past due to her no-nonsense, intrepid reporting (i.e. doing actual journalism, as opposed to vapid, far-left propaganda) and “signed off on” Herridge’s ouster as part of layoffs by parent company Paramount Global.
Houck touted his boss, Brent Bozell, tweeting: “Can’t make this up. CBS News fires @CBS_Herridge, then steals her notes, and in disgrace is forced to return them. A week later, the president of @CBSNews who signed off on that theft receives an industry free speech award.” But all of the Post’s claims about Herridge and CBS are based on anonymous sources — which the MRC has repeatedly told us can’t be trusted — and no evidence has been presented that CBS treated Herridge any differently than any other laid-off employee. Still, Houck leaned into a conspiracy theory to boost the Post’s anonymous claims:
Steigrad also used the piece to reiterate the timing of Herridge’s axing came as she continues to face legal peril for a years-old story from her Fox News days with a U.S. District Court judge demanding she divulge her stories for a story “about a federal probe into a Chinese American scientist.”
Houck expanded on that in a March 1 post:
Late Thursday afternoon, a Washington D.C.-based federal district court judge moved to hold former Fox News and CBS News journalist Catherine Herridge in contempt of court for refusing to burn her sources from a 2017 story while at Fox News about a federal probe into a Chinese-American scientist who was never charged.
The news came just over two weeks after Herridge was suddenly fired from CBS as part of layoffs across its parent company, Paramount Global, and briefly had her files seized (which included confidential information) from CBS.
Not surprisingly, none of the major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — cared enough to cite this actual attack on press freedoms on their flagship Friday morning news shows. Unfortunately, it was the same story on the major cable networks as well of MSNBC, NewsNation, and even the Fox News Channel.
If this were a case against, say, someone from ABC News and in good standing with corporate liberal media and other lefties, it’s a safe bet this would have received more attention.
Actually, the safer bet is that if that ABC News reporter was in the same situation, Houck and the rest of the MRC would be rooting for her to be locked up until she divulged her sources and would not have considered it an “actual attack on press freedoms.” The MRC only cares about “press freedoms” if right-wing reporters like Herridge are involved.
Gabriela Pariseau rehashed her employer’s attack on the CBS executive for receiving an award in a March 12 post:
A major media association presented its First Amendment Awards ceremony on Saturday which featured woke media personalities who have been anything but champions of free speech.
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Foundation invited MSNBC host and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to be the Master of Ceremonies for the First Amendment Awards even though she has openly supported censorship from the White House press briefing podium. RTDNA also honored Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who has downplayed government Big Tech collusion to censor content, and CBS President Ingrid Ciprián-Matthews, who has come under fire for allegedly firing veteran CBS journalist Catherine Herridge.
[…]Ciprián-Matthews has been criticized for her hiring and firing practices concerning alleged anti-white racial discrimination, which came under scrutiny during a six-month human resources investigation in 2021, according to the Post.
The criticism reached a boiling point last month when CBS fired Catherine Herridge, whose reporting of the Biden family scandals triggered an internal outcry.
Showing that she can hold a grudge like any other MRC employee, Pariseau raged at Psaki because she “has not been shy about encouraging censorship” — which, as she later admitted, involved Psaki calling for social media outlets to stop lies and misinformation. Pariseau didn’t explain why right-wingers should be allowed to lie without consequence.
Herridge made her own contribution to confirming her right-wing bias by appearing before a Republican-controlled House committee set up to air her grievances, which Houck gleefully detailed in an April 11 post:
On Thursday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, former CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge emerged to give her first set of extended public remarks about her sudden firing from CBS News and what she would describe as a “journalistic rape” and the crossing of “a red line that…should never be crossed again” in the (temporary) seizure of her files that contained sensitive details about sources.
Joined by Sinclair’s Sharyl Attkisson, SAG-AFTRA’s Mary Cavallaro, and the Knight First Amendment Institute’s Nadine Farid Johnson, Herridge spoke out in favor of the bipartisan PRESS Act, which would largely protect journalists from being forced by the government to disclose the identity of their sources.
Herridge has particular interest as, in addition to sudden unemployment, she was recently held in contempt and ordered (pending a stay) to divulge a source relating to a story from her Fox News tenure or face a $500/day fine.
Yes, that would be the same Sharyl Attkisson who’s a rabid anti-vaxxer and who may have paid far-right WorldNetDaily to help promote her TV show. It’s telling that no reporter without a right-wing bias was allowed to take part. Still, Houck fluffed both of them:
Despite the fact she did receive her files, she added this “decision to receive my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed again by any media organization in the future”, especially because such legal threats and fines would be crushing for smaller and independent journalists.
For her part, Attkisson tied in the host of stories she’s covered, the Obama administration spying on her, and need for confidential sources to the Deep State’s unrepentant penchant for targeting those they perceive to be enemies.
Houck quoted only Republican members of Congress serving up softball questions to Herridge and Attkisson and other partisan pontifications; he censored all mention of the Democrats at the hearing.