Catherine Herridge was let go earlier this year.
Former CBS reporter Catherine Herridge said on April 11 that her former employer seized some of her files, including files containing confidential information.
Ms. Herridge told a U.S. House of Representatives panel in Washington that she was informed in a Zoom call that she was being terminated.
“I was locked out of my emails, and I was locked out of the office,” she said. “CBS News seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files, including confidential source information.”
Ms. Herridge said that was not normal, describing it as “an attack on investigative journalism.” She said that the move “crossed a red line” that “should never be crossed by any media organization.” Mary Cavallaro, an official with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union, said she could not recall another instance in which a reporter’s files were seized.
A CBS spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that the network had her files but had not gone through them. “We have respected her request to not go through the files, and out of our concern for confidential sources, the office she occupied has remained secure since her departure,” the spokesperson said.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, which was holding the hearing, said that CBS “took unprecedented actions” regarding her belongings.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the actions were scary.
Ms. Herridge said she remains unsure why she was fired but described differences in opinion regarding reporting on Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, and the president.
“There was tension over the Hunter Biden reporting and the Biden administration, but I can’t say for sure why I was let go,” Ms. Herridge said.
Limited Views, Killed Stories
Ms. Herridge also told lawmakers that after beginning to work at CBS, she noticed that executives “limited points of views and voices.”
“I was uncomfortable with that, because I think good journalism is about diverse voices,” she said.
Sharyl Attkisson, another former CBS reporter, who resigned from CBS in 2014 and now hosts a Sinclair Broadcast Group show, said that she saw stories she was working on killed while she was at CBS after phone calls came in from lawmakers and the White House.
