Fired CBS News correspondent Katherine Herridge claims her former bosses blocked an exclusive interview she had with Elon Musk in early 2023 — because they feared what the outspoken tech giant might say.
In a video posted on Were in discussion.
Journalists published files that shed light on how Twitter was secretly “blacklisting” conservative tweets and users, including its baseless decision. Censors The Post’s explosive Hunter Biden laptop scoop Before the 2020 elections.
Musk, who bought Twitter and will change its name to
Herries was investigating the Hunter Biden laptop scandal for CBS On the orders of Shari RedstoneThe media mogul whose Paramount empire controlled CBS News, and CBS CEO George Cheeks, the reporter also revealed Tuesday, but Mentioned earlier that he faced obstacles In his reporting.
“I went to CBS executives and I said, ‘This is the opportunity that we have.’ He’s like, ‘I want to do it live and on my stage,’ I said, ‘Oh my God, this is an incredible opportunity,'” Herridge tells CBS News. is one of the most influential human beings, and the response from executives was, ‘Well, we can’t do it live.'”
Herridge was surprised because it is usually beneficial to give permission for an interview with no strings attached on the material.
“‘I was like, ‘What do you mean we can’t do it live?'” she asked, to which she said higher-ups said: “‘Well, we don’t know what he’s going to say. Is.’ ,
Frustrated, Herridge tells the audience: “I’m thinking, ‘Isn’t that the purpose of journalism?’ You don’t know what that person is going to say.”
A CBS spokesperson declined to comment.
Herridge said CBS executives told the investigative reporter that the interview would have to be taped and edited. He also objected to the fact that Musk wanted to be interviewed on his platform.
Herridge said he discussed a scenario with his bosses in which the interview could be broadcast simultaneously on X and CBS’s streaming service, so they could both air it at the same time.
“Everything was destroyed,” the reporter reported. “To be honest, I felt so embarrassed that I never went back to Elon Musk.”
He explained that CBS had a long list of conditions for the interview, which he did not think Musk would accept.
“This is someone whose DNA is free speech and how can you tell someone who is committed to free speech that your network can only tape it and only if they edit it and it can only be on their platform It is possible? I couldn’t take it and go back to him,” she said.
Earlier this month, the acclaimed investigative reporter Revealed in his newsletter which he faced Obstacles from then-CBS News president Ingrid Cipriani-Matthews and Washington, D.C., bureau chief Mark Lima, and ultimately, his initial reporting in 2020 — which verified that the laptop belonged to Biden and had not been tampered with — was killed by the network.
He advocated for his reporting on the matter to be aired in November 2022, after the midterm elections.
Herridge, who now has a newsletter and filed a special investigative investigation for X, was ousted earlier this year amid sweeping cuts at the network and parent company Paramount Global. CBS News seized Herries’ reporting materials. After it’s over.
On Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Sources close to the situation claimed that the decision to withhold her files was made by Cyprian-Matthews. files were returned A few days later, amid pressure from the union representing Herries.
earlier this year, The post revealed Cyprian-Matthews was accused of sidelining and blocking white journalists Herring’s reporting on Hunter Biden laptop,
executive quit suddenly In August, and moved into the role of senior advisor for coverage ahead of the 2024 presidential election. She recently left the network.
