On 4/11/2024, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, former CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge emerged to give her first set of extended public remarks about her sudden firing from CBS News and the crossing of “a red line that…should never be crossed again” in the seizure of her files that contained sensitive details about sources.

“We are told repeatedly that there are conspiracy theories. We have a — a government that is going after individual private citizens. I mean, this is the narrative over and over and over again. And, you know, as a new one to this committee I’m always so disappointed when I feel like there’s actually a lot that we agree on. And press freedoms and the PRESS Act is something that we were able to all come together on, and that’s where our attention should be. We should always be making sure that we have a free and protected press. Now, what I’m hearing is — is really about employment disputes with news agencies that are now being conflated into some kind of conspiracy theory, once again, of the government going after, in this case, not just private individuals, but the press. And personal grievances, witnesses’ personal grievances are not actually attacks on the First Amendment and the free press. And from what I’ve heard from the searing so far and the materials that we were given in preparation of this, it seems pretty clear to me that most of the allegations that have been made so far involve disputes over what are essentially employment and editorial decision-making by private news organizations in the context of newsgathering, public reporting which we all desperately need in this country. And, as I said we came together to support the PRESS Act. We all agree that it’s an important piece of legislation to protect. I wish we spent more time in this committee really talking about important issues, and not, once again, having the colleagues overpromise and under deliver. If I believed every single time of the conspiracy theories that are polled before this committee, I would have to believe that there was a bogeyman behind every corner, under every rock. It’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd.”

https://www.facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/1823169001488761
Teenage son to Catherine Herridge: “I’ve got your back!”; Dem: conspiracy theories, absurd