By Most honest people can acknowledge that the mainstream media leans liberal. A recent study from Syracuse University showed that the fewest journalists ever claim to be Republicans.
Out of 1,600 journalists polled, merely 3.5 percent identified as members of the GOP, while over 36 percent claimed to be Democrats. The rest claimed to be “independent” or “other” and were not pushed to choose one of the other.
“The numbers are a drastic change from 50 years ago,” when the poll started,” writes one outlet. “In 1971, more than 35 percent identified as Democrats and over 25 percent identified as Republicans.”
Even with the partisan leanings, however, it’s hard to believe that a mainstream newsroom would turn state media under a Democratic president, but according to new reports, that’s exactly what CBS News has done.
The New York Post reports that the acclaimed CBS reporter who was investigating the Hunter Biden laptop scandal before she was fired last week had her personal files seized by the network in an “unprecedented” move, sources told The Post on Thursday.
Catherine Herridge — who is the middle of a First Amendment case being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among 20 CBS News staffers let go as part of a larger purge of hundreds of employees at parent company Paramount Global.
Her firing had stunned co-workers, but the network’s decision to hold on to her personal materials, along with her work laptop where she may have other confidential info, has left many staffers shaken, according to insiders.
“It’s so extraordinary,” a source familiar with the situation told The Post, noting that the files — which are presumptively now the property of CBS News — most likely contain confidential material from Herridge’s stints at both Fox and CBS.
The same source told The Post that leaders at CBS had her belongings boxed up “except for Herridge’s notes and files and informed her that it would decide what — if anything — would be returned to her.”
Jonathan Turley wrote in The Hill that the move by CBS was so egregious that even some employees, along with the union, have become alarmed. The law professor said, “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 had most recently covered the House impeachment investigation into Biden’s alleged connection to his family’s influence peddling, special counsel Robert Hur’s report about the president’s mishandling of classified documents, and several of the criminal charges against the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
The Daily Mail noted that “her inclusion in recent layoffs puzzled some industry observers, as she regularly broke news and landed scoops for CBS.”
The newspaper also noted that “separately, Herridge has been in the middle of a high-profile court battle over her refusal to reveal sources for articles she wrote in 2017.
A judge has demanded she reveal sources used in a series of articles about a Chinese American scientist who was investigated by the FBI but never charged with wrongdoing.
Herridge could face fines of up to $5,000 per day if she refuses to be interviewed under oath for the case.”
Apparently, the only way for Biden to “defend democracy” and “protect our norms” is to undermine our democratic institutions and see allies break their own commitments to The First Amendment.
The House Judiciary Committee has announced the launch of a probe into CBS and their suspected cover up on behalf of the president. The New York Post first reported that “in a scathing letter sent to CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews on Friday — obtained exclusively by The Post — Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the committee, demanded the network reveal who at CBS or parent-company Paramount Global ‘made the decision to terminate’ Herridge.
The committee said it also wants to know why her confidential files were ‘seized’ as part of the termination.’
‘The unprecedented actions of CBS News threaten to chill good journalism and ultimately weaken our nation’s commitment to a free press'” The Post revealed.
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