Ex-CBS News reporter accuses network of ‘defying’ orders from Shari Redstone and George Cheeks to investigate Hunter Biden laptop scandal

Ex-CBS News reporter accuses network of ‘defying’ orders from Shari Redstone and George Cheeks to investigate Hunter Biden laptop scandal

Fired CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge accused her former editors of “defying the orders” of her own bosses at the Tiffany Network – namely media heiress Shari Redstone and CBS CEO George Cheeks – to give Hunter Biden’s laptop browse.

Herridge released an explosive video on Tuesday saying it was a “high priority.”

“George Cheeks told me several times that this was a top priority story for the network and that it was a top priority for his boss, Shari Redstone. So I took on this task and did it to the best of my ability,” she said.

Former CBS News investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge said she encountered obstacles while reporting on Hunter Biden from her laptop. X / @C__Herridge

Cheeks told her that CBS wanted to “take accountability” on the matter and “speak truth to power on both sides,” which the investigative reporter welcomed.

But the journalist said there was resistance within the left-leaning network to her investigation of the president’s son’s laptop and whether its contents exposed corruption by President Biden.

“There were support groups for it within the company and there were support groups that understood the value of investigating the Hunter Biden story, but there were some elements within CBS News that just resisted it,” Herridge said.

“It didn’t matter what the facts really were, and that really bothered me as a journalist.”

CBS did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, Herridge revealed in her recently published newsletter that her immediate superiors, Washington bureau chief Mark Lima and CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, pushed back on Herridge’s reporting and squashed potential stories in the early days of the laptop scandal have made.

Herridge said she provided evidence to CBS News that the laptop contained about $1 million worth of material
She, along with other texts and emails, received a contract from a Chinese energy company, but her report was never broadcast.

In her bombshell accusation, Herridge said she provided evidence to Ciprian-Matthews and “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell in early October 2020 that the laptop contained material about “a million-dollar advance from a Chinese energy company,” along with Business texts and emails from the son of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

However, their reporting was never broadcast.

The Post was the only mainstream publication at the time to report that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden – leading to a ban on the story by social media giants Facebook and Twitter.

It took another two years for CBS to air a forensic review of Hunter Biden’s laptop data. By then, Ciprian-Matthews had already been named president of CBS News.

CBS CEO George Cheeks and his boss Shari Redstone pushed
the significance of Herridge’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop
Scandal. CBS via Getty Images

“When we did the story, we did it after the midterms. I argued against it because it was done before the midterms and my training is that you should do the story whenever it’s done,” she said in Tuesday’s video. “You shouldn’t let the political cycle dictate your actions.”

After the article aired, Herridge was pressed to further report what she had discovered during the forensic investigation.

“For example, unfortunately in the text messages there is use of the N-word, liberal use of the N-word, and I thought that was worthy of a story, but I was told CBS News didn’t care. ” she said, pointing out that CBS did not do this story and also shared information from the forensic review that “revealed more than half a dozen emails likely used by Joe Biden.”

Herridge was asked by Ciprian-Matthews and Norah O’Donnell to review the reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. REUTERS

“I thought it was a story, but the answer was, ‘Well, we need to know what the contents of the emails are,'” she said, explaining that getting them would be a “year-long process.” This information was withdrawn from her and she was then told not to pursue it.

As the award-winning journalist continued her pursuit of the laptop story, she said she noticed a “connection glitch” with the Tiffany Network.

“I didn’t understand how an executive like George Cheeks could tell me that this was a high priority for the network and its boss, and yet CBS News executives showed producers that anchors could turn it down,” she said.

“I came to the conclusion that they must have felt they were more powerful than George Cheeks, which was amazing to me. “I have never worked in a place where an order from above was so disregarded,” Herridge said.

Herridge alleges that Ciprian-Matthews, who served as president of the news division, placed obstacles in the way of her reporting, contradicting Cheeks and Redstone’s instructions. Getty Images for Operativo

Earlier this year, Herridge was let go as part of a series of sweeping layoffs at CBS News parent company Paramount Global. The reporter said she was shocked to learn her head was on the chopping block as she had been constantly digging up shovels.

The investigative reporter said the timing raised eyebrows, noting that when she resigned, she looked at the metadata on the individual sheet in which her termination letter was created on Feb. 9, a day after Herridge reported on the investigation and final report Special Counsel Robert Her had reported on President Biden.

“I reported the facts of this investigation, that it was highly critical of the president, that it described him as a nice old man with a poor memory, and that he could not be prosecuted for that reason, among other things. So I thought the timing of this was pretty important, in addition to the fact that I was given an assignment that was very difficult internally, but I was totally committed to it, and I did everything I could to help CBS at “To put a story that wasn’t popular first among a lot of people on that network,” she said.

Herridge delved deeply into the controversy surrounding her 2020 investigation of Hunter Biden and her termination from CBS. ZUMAPRESS.com

CBS News confiscated Herridge’s reporting materials after her firing.

Sources familiar with the situation claimed that the decision to preserve her files was made by Ciprian-Matthews. The network did not comment on the details.

The files were returned days later under pressure from the union representing Herridge.

Earlier this year, The Post reported that Ciprian-Matthews was accused of sidelining white journalists and blocking Herridge’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

The executive abruptly resigned in August and previously moved into the role of senior adviser for coverage of the 2024 presidential election. She is no longer with the network.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *