Posted on 02/23/2024 8:40:08 AM PST by george76
Below is my column in The Hill on the trouble brewing at CBS over the seizure of the files of acclaimed investigative reporter Catherine Herridge. The column broke the story on the uproar over not just her being laid off but her being locked out from her files. I am now hearing from CBS sources that the network is moving toward a resolution to turn over the files after the outcry. However, the concerns over Herridge’s firing and the network’s handling of her confidential notes continues to draw fire from journalists and commentators. The union issued a statement (below) after the column that “CBS News’ decision to seize Catherine Herridge’s reporter notes and research … sets a dangerous precedent for all media professionals and threatens the very foundation of the First Amendment.”
Here is the column:
“Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” Those words, from CBS icon Edward R. Murrow, came to mind this week after I spoke with journalists at the network.
There is trouble brewing at Black Rock, the headquarters of CBS, after the firing of Catherine Herridge, an acclaimed investigative reporter. Many of us were shocked after Herridge was included in layoffs this month, but those concerns have increased after CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, computers and records, including information on privileged sources.
The position of CBS has alarmed many, including the union, as an attack on free press principles by one of the nation’s most esteemed press organizations.
I have spoken confidentially with current and former CBS employees who have stated that they could not recall the company ever taking such a step before. One former CBS journalist said that many employees “are confused why [Herridge] was laid off, as one of the correspondents who broke news regularly and did a lot of original reporting.”
That has led to concerns about the source of the pressure. He added that he had never seen a seizure of records from a departing journalist, and that the move had sent a “chilling signal” in the ranks of CBS.
A former CBS manager, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he had “never heard of anything like this.” He attested to the fact that, in past departures, journalists took all of their files and office contents. Indeed, the company would box up everything from cups to post-its for departing reporters. He said the holding of the material was “outrageous” and clearly endangered confidential sources.
Herridge declined to make any public comments on her departure.
CBS also did not respond to my inquiries about this.
A source within the the union, SAG-AFTRA, confirmed that it has raised this controversy with CBS and remains extremely concerned about the effect of this action on journalistic practices and source confidentiality. The union believes this is “very unusual” and goes far beyond this individual case. “It is a matter of principle,” a union spokesperson added. “It is a matter of serious concern. We are considering all of our options.”
For full disclosure, I was under contract twice with CBS as a legal analyst. I cherished my time at the network. I have also known Herridge for years in both legal and journalistic capacities.
CBS is one of the world’s premier news organizations, with a legendary history that includes figures from Murrow to Walter Cronkite to Roger Mudd. That is why the hiring of Herridge was so welcomed by many of us. The network was at risk of becoming part of the journalistic herd, an echo-chamber for Democratic and liberal narratives. It had been mired in third place for ages, and it was moving in the wrong direction by alienating half of the country.
Herridge had been a celebrated investigative reporter at Fox News. An old-school investigative journalist, she is viewed as a hard-driving, middle-of-the-road reporter cut from the same cloth as the network’s legendary figures.
The timing of Herridge’s termination immediately raised suspicions in Washington. She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop. She continued to pursue these stories despite reports of pushback from CBS executives, including CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews.
Given the other layoffs and declining revenues, the inclusion of Herridge was defended by the network as a painful but necessary measure. But then something strange happened. The network grabbed Herridge’s notes and files and informed her that it would decide what, if anything, would be turned over to her. The files likely contain confidential material from both her stints at Fox and CBS. Those records, it suggests, are presumptively the property of CBS News.
For many of us who have worked in the media for decades, this action is nothing short of shocking. Journalists are generally allowed to leave with their files. Under the standard contract, including the one at CBS, journalists agree that they will make files available to the network if needed in future litigation. That presupposes that they will retain control of their files. Such files are crucial for reporters, who use past contacts and work in pursuing new stories with other outlets or who cap their careers with personal memoirs.
The heavy-handed approach to the files left many wondering if it was the result of the past reported tension over stories.
Regardless of motive, the company is dead wrong.
These files may contain sources who were given confidentiality by Herridge. The company is suggesting that the privilege of confidentiality (and the material) rest ultimately with CBS. As a threshold matter, that cannot be the case with regard to files that were generated during Herridge’s long stint with Fox News. Yet CBS appears to be retaining those files, too.
When sources accept confidentiality assurances, it is an understanding that rests with the reporter. It is a matter of trust that can take a long time to establish on a personal level between a reporter and a source.
It is certainly understood that the network stands behind that pledge. However, most sources understand that their identity and information will be kept protected by the reporter and only disclosed to a select group of editors or colleagues when necessary. It is the reporter who implicitly promises to go to jail to protect confidentiality — and many have done so. Such agreements are less likely to occur if sources are told that any number of unnamed individuals, including non-journalists, could have access or custody of these files.
When “Deep Throat” agreed to disclose his identity to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, he was assured that they would protect it until his death. He would not have been so inclined if he had been told that this was a type of privilege by committee with potential disclosures to corporate, legal and HR personnel. Reporters like Herridge have long served as the primary defenders of privileged sources. Indeed, Herridge is still in court defending confidentiality over a series of stories at Fox News in 2017, even at the risk of being held in contempt.
CBS is suggesting that it will allow unnamed individuals to rifle through Herridge’s files to determine what will remain with the network and what will be returned to the reporter. That could fundamentally alter how reporters operate and how willing sources are to trust assurances that they will be protected.
In criminal cases involving privileged information, the government has an elaborate “filter team” system to wall off access to information under review. In the court system, judges use in camera and ex parte reviews to protect such information. Ironically, the media itself seems to take a more ad hoc approach. Indeed, CBS seems to have adopted a “Trust us, we’re the media” approach. However, that could expose these files to the access of unnamed lawyers, tech staff and others who are conducting this inventory and analysis.
CBS should reconsider this move before it does real harm to itself or its reporters. Ironically, it should not want to be the custodian of such records, which can expose the company to production demands in litigation, such as the ongoing fight over the confidentiality of the Fox sources. To store such documents is to invite a storm of subpoenas.
CBS could be forcing a showdown with the union, which must protect not only this journalist but all journalists seeking to maintain control and confidentiality of their files.
The union may have no choice but to go to court to force CBS to protect journalistic values, including a demand for an injunction to force the company to secure these files and bar review until a court has had a chance to consider these questions of confidential and proprietary claims to the files.
...
CBS itself will have to look into that mirror and answer some questions of what happened to the confidential records of Catherine Herridge.
‘Incredibly suspicious’ says Senator
Hunter Biden email seemed based on classified info:
Jan 25,2023 (DID Hur ask?)
New York Post ^ | 01/25/2023 | Miranda Devine
Posted on 2/9/2024, 8:37:19 PM by sopo
A Hunter Biden email about Ukraine from 2014 looks ‘suspiciously’ like it could have come from classified information, a leading GOP senator has claimed.
Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said the April 12, 2014 message to one of the first son’s business partners resembles documents that the State Department gives members of the Senate when they travel overseas. “It reads like one of those scene-setters — highly detailed information in terms of Ukraine,” Johnson told Fox News Tuesday.
The email from Hunter to Devon Archer includes a granular 22-point memo the Biden scion described as “thoughts after doing some research.” Those “thoughts” include the prescient predictions that Petro Poroshenko would be elected Ukraine’s president the following month and that “some sort of decentralization will likely occur in the East.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I wrote this elsewhere.
With all due respect, in a company they ALWAYS “seize” the employee’s work papers and laptop when they’re fired. This is SOP. Unless there is a contract, you are an employee at will and all “your” files, customer lists, electronic documents, presentations, and laptop are in fact not yours but CORPORATE PROPERTY.
The process, too, is SOP: the employee is often told by their manager that their job is being eliminated, HR is there to explain ongoing benefits, healthcare, severance, outplacement services, and then the employee is either escorted out or left alone to leave if there isn’t a risk they’ll flip out. Their network access is disabled, ID badge is collected, and (if the company is ethical) they’ll offer the employee the option of coming back after-hours to pack up their personal effects with their manager or security standing by, or the company will box up their stuff and send it home.
Thus, it’s not Herridge’sintellectual property unless she had a contractual agreement with her employer to retain all IP rights in her reporting and work. Such an arrangement, by the way, is VERY unusual. Not impossible but unusual. If that WAS the case, her lawyers would be all over that and we’d probably have that leaked to the press. Further, CBS would know darn well it’s her property and would tread lightly when firing her.
Also, Herridge was fired with hundreds of randos. The only entities singling her out are Turley via The Hill and the NY Post. And I would submit to you, the people ranting about “OMG they took HER stuff” are at best ignorant about what happens in the process of firing people.
I DO agree, journalism isn’t plumbing, contractor work, or automobile manufacturing. It’s actually less important. Nobody writes a pearl-clutching saga in the NY Post when a guy who worked for decades loyally has his job eliminated. Nobody sheds a tear that he couldn’t bring home a few really cool reports he wrote that made the company money.
Again, CBS is scum and it is totally possible Bidet wants his hands on her papers and laptop. If that’s at play, that’s criminal AND a 1st Amendment violation. It’s also worth noting, Ms Herridge did some good reporting and she donated part of her liver to her infant son (most of the media would probably abort their kid).
That said, this saga is about a member of the MSM who is on TV and lives in Manhattan, who earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a Master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism…
…No disrespect meant to Ms. Herridge, but on paper she’s one of the “elite.” My electrician and mechanic are more valuable to this nation than a talking head. Forgive me if I don’t get my knickers in a twist.
Next up will be bodies found who mysteriously died suddenly. They will be the “outed” sources, eliminated by the Deep State.
The union should be in court yesterday.
Free speech has ended,we don’t have a free press only state news/propaganda.
I guess from now on reporters know they have to keep critical information in notes on something they only have access to.
Interesting that neither Woodward nor Bernstein were threatened with contempt for not revealing Deep Throat’s name. I guess it’s (D)ifferent...
FBI searched U of Penn’s “Biden Center” in November
after President’s lawyers found 10 classified documents there
More revelations emerge despite Biden White House claims of “transparency”
Daily Mail UK ^ | 31 January 2023 | UPDATED: 31 January 2023 | By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Posted on 1/31/2023, 9:16:46 AM by Red Badger
The FBI searched Biden’s former office at his U of Penn’s DC think tank “The Biden Center.” It came days after Biden’s lawyers identified classified material there.
White House has claimed ‘transparency’ as agents also searched Biden’s Wilmington home for classified documents.
Investigators from the FBI searched the office that Biden maintained at his DC think tank – days after his own lawyer identified classified material there, it was revealed Tuesday.
The White House and the Biden Justice Department did not disclose the search, which was reported by CBS News, despite the Biden White House’s claim of ‘transparency’ over the rolling discoveries of classified material.
It was not immediately known if any additional documents marked classified were uncovered during the search.
On November 2, days before the mid-term elections, a Biden attorney discovered 10 documents marked ‘classified,’ then contacted the National Archives, which alerted the Biden Justice Department.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
’ legendary history that includes figures from Murrow to Walter Cronkite to Roger Mudd.’
I wonder why they didn’t mention Dan Rather?
She was one of the few honest reporters out there. Tried to play it straight. Her writing was very objective.
Sanders' arrest added to the conspiracy theories that CBS was providing cover for the Clinton administration's center fuel tank explosion explanation.
-PJ
Murrow and Cronkite turning over in their graves.
Jonathan Turley has not learned that Walter Cronkite .. was a traitor to America.. his Tet Offensive false narrative is just one glaring example ..
Dan was a very hot shot type of guy too quick to judge a situation as far as Uncle Walter was concerned.
You wonder if CBS hired her just to get her notes.
No outcry exists over this. Former journalists. Remaining anonymous. Nope, the media works for the Democrat Party.
I’m waiting for the Deep State connection to be exposed…… So much for 1st Amendment rights for the press Libs. The agenda is too important to let the truth get in the way…… Be seeing you! Prisoner # 6….
Releasing bits and pieces allows the Dems time to discredit.
He's like the Democrats with Trump. “Any day now, we've got him now”.
Close the border. Stop funding foreign wars. Prioritize the taxpayers.
People know the Biden's have always been crooked and do not care about that as much as inflation.
was Sheryl Atkinsson at CBS when she was fired for revealing Obama and Holder sold 2,000 auto weapons to Mexican Drug Cartels (see Fast and Furious)
bfl
She was about to release her research on the Biden Crime Family. Only explanation. Damning evidence.
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