http://nypost.com/2024/11/04/media/fired-cbs-reporter-catherine-herridge-reveals-how-network-killed-hunter-biden-story-i-felt-sick/
By Alexandra Steigrad
The New York Post
Published Nov. 4, 2024
CBS News went to great lengths to squash correspondent Catherine Herridge’s reporting about the Hunter Biden laptop just weeks before the 2020 election, the award-winning investigative journalist claimed.
In her bombshell allegation, Herridge revealed she brought evidence to CBS News executive Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews and “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell in early October 2020 that the laptop contained material about “a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm,” along with business texts and emails from the son of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
But later that month, Herridge wrote that she was shocked to see “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl say the laptop “couldn’t be verified” during a tense interview with then-President Donald Trump.
“As I watched the broadcast, I felt sick,” Herridge, who was controversially fired by the Tiffany Network in February, wrote Sunday night in her recently launched newsletter.
“I knew the laptop records could be vetted and confirmed.”
She added that she was surprised that “60 Minutes” — which came under fire last month for allegedly editing comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris to avoid a “word salad” answer about the Middle East conflict — had not been working with the news division to confirm her reporting.
There was such a “disconnect” between the two entities, she said.
Herridge claims that her former employer initially quashed her reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story. | X / @C__Herridge
Before Stahl’s segment aired, she was contacted by Ciprian-Matthews asking her if she had “confirmed reporting” on the Hunter Biden story for O’Donnell’s broadcast.
Herridge assured the executive that her extensive reporting included “working the phones, reaching out to people on the Hunter Biden emails for corroboration and cross-referencing court records.”
“I told Ciprian-Matthews the vetted materials included a million dollar retainer from a Chinese energy firm, emails with Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski as well as Hunter Biden text messages,” she said.
Leslie Stahl told then-President Trump in a 2020 interview that the Hunter Biden story couldn’t be vetted– which shocked Herridge, who had already verified the laptop reporting to CBS brass. | 60 Minutes CBS News
“Asked by Ciprian-Matthews if there was a ‘Hunter connection,’ I responded, ‘Yes, all of them,'” she wrote.
Herridge said that she then provided some of the vetted records directly to Ciprian-Matthews.
But her reporting was never aired.
“I don’t know at this point what happened,” Herridge said.
The journalist noted that based on her experience at the network, she found it odd that CBS News did not task the investigative unit in October 2020 to develop more reporting on the laptop.
Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews asked Herridge to verify the laptop story. Herridge said she presented the evidence to the exec and never heard anything back. | Getty Images for Operativo
“That would have been standard practice,” Herridge wrote.
The Post was the only mainstream publication to report at the time that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden — leading to a ban of the story by social media giants Facebook and Twitter.
It took an additional two years for CBS to broadcast a forensic review of the Hunter Biden laptop data. By that time, Ciprian-Matthews had been elevated to the role of CBS News president.
Herridge said she continued to advocate for her report on the laptop, which “determined that both the data belonged to Hunter Biden and it had not been tampered with.”
“Our report was broadcast in November 2022, after the midterm elections,” Herridge said.
The Post reached out to CBS News for comment.
Herridge brought her Hunter Biden reporting to Ciprian-Matthews and Norah O’Donnell (pictured), but the journalist claims neither followed up with her on it. | REUTERS
Herridge was ousted earlier this year amid sweeping cuts at the network and parent company Paramount Global. CBS News seized Herridge’s reporting materials upon her termination.
Sources close to the situation claimed that the decision to hold on to her files was made by Ciprian-Matthews. The files were returned days later amid pressure from the union representing Herridge.
Earlier this year, The Post revealed that Ciprian-Matthews was accused of sidelining white journalists and blocking Herridge’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop.
The exec abruptly stepped down in August, and moved to the role of senior adviser for coverage of the 2024 presidential election before. She is set to exit the company after the election.
| 