Catherine Herridge, the veteran CBS News investigative journalist, testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday as part of a hearing on press freedoms and the need to make the Press Act law.

Veteran investigative journalist Catherine Herridge testified before Congress Thursday, April 11, and discussed her firing from CBS News. She explained that she was let go on a Zoom call and locked out of her emails and office. Herridge said CBS then seized hundreds of her reporting files including confidential source information. 

“When the network of Walter Cronkite ceases your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism,” Herridge said in a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Former CBS News and Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge testified on Thursday about the “journalistic rape” by CBS when the network seized her reporting files upon her dismissal.

“I was locked out of my emails and I was locked out of the office. CBS News seized hundreds of pages of my reporting files including confidential source information,” Herridge said in response to questioning from House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.)

Earlier this week Adam Rubenstein, a former New York Times editor scapegoated in the Tom Cotton op-ed affair at the Gray Lady back in 2020, published a tell-all about his experiences at the paper.

In his lede, Rubenstein recalled being chided for identifying Chick-fil-A’s spicy chicken sandwich as his favorite after being asked a seemingly innocent icebreaker at his orientation.

On one of my first days at The New York Times, I went to an orientation with more than a dozen other new hires. We had to do an icebreaker: Pick a Starburst out of a jar and then answer a question. My Starburst was pink, I believe, and so I had to answer the pink prompt, which had me respond with my favorite sandwich. Russ & Daughters’ Super Heebster came to mind, but I figured mentioning a $19 sandwich wasn’t a great way to win new friends. So I blurted out, “The spicy chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A,” and considered the ice broken.

Adam Rubenstein is a journalist and former opinion editor at The New York Times. As a person of right-leaning political sensibilities—Rubenstein previously worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard—he was brought to the Times opinion pages with a mandate to help diversify its ideological offerings. His bosses said they expected him to use his contacts in conservative media to solicit, research, and improve op-eds that would advance contrarian arguments and challenge the paper's editorial point of view, as well as its readers.

Washington's NPR affiliate, WAMU, plans to shut down local news site DCist and lay off 15 staffers as part of a strategic shift focused on audio.

The big picture: The shift away from digital publishing will allow WAMU to focus on its core radio products, as well as new digital audio opportunities like podcasts and live events, WAMU general manager Erika Pulley-Hayes told Axios.

"We're making the choice to invest in what we're better at than anyone else in this town, and that's audio," Pulley-Hayes said.

The House Judiciary Committee asked CBS News on Friday to provide the committee with records related to the network’s recent termination of journalist Catherine Herridge after accusations surfaced that her now-former employer inappropriately seized her belongings when she left.

The committee requested in a letter to CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews that she provide lawmakers with a briefing about the events surrounding Herridge’s exit, as well as provide them with certain internal company communications about it by March 1.