CBS network leaders hampered their former reporter Catherine Herridge’s efforts to investigate the Hunter Biden laptop story in defiance of CEO George Cheeks’ orders.
In a new video posted on X, Herridge alleges that network executives obstructed her reporting on the bombshell laptop story.
“George Cheeks said to me on multiple occasions that this was a story of the highest priority for the network and that it was a high priority for his boss, Shari Redstone,” Herridge said.
However, there “were some elements within CBS News that were just resistant to it,” she explained.
Herridge had obtained a clean forensic copy of the laptop data that was identical to what was given to the FBI. She argued that it should be published before the 2022 midterm elections. Yet, the network delayed the story until after the midterms. “My training is that you should always do the story when it’s ready to go. You should not be dictated by the political cycle,” she argued.
The investigative reporter discussed additional content she wanted to investigate at the time, including emails allegedly sent by President Joe Biden and text messages containing racial slurs.
“For example, in the text messages, there’s unfortunately the use of the N word, the liberal use of the N word, and I thought this was worthy of a story, but I was told that it was not something that interested CBS News,” she said, noting that CBS didn’t do that story, and also passed on intel from the forensic review that revealed “more than half a dozen emails that were likely used by Joe Biden.”
Herridge was asked by Ciprian-Matthews and Norah O’Donnell to verify the reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
“I thought that was a story, but the answer that came back was, ‘Well, we need to know what the content is of the emails,’” she said, explaining that it would be a “years-long process” to get that information and she was told not to pursue it, as a result.
As the award-winning journalist continued her pursuit of the laptop story, she said, she was struck by a “disconnect” at the Tiffany Network.
“I didn’t understand how a senior executive like George Cheeks could tell me that this was a high priority for the network and for his boss, and yet the executives at CBS News showed producers anchors could refuse that,” she said.