Bloodbath at Paramount Claims 800 Jobs Including CBS News Journalists Embroiled In Controversy
Several CBS News reporters were caught up in layoffs at Paramount Global that claimed 800 jobs, including one who is embroiled in a high-stakes First Amendment fight — and another who has reportedly weathered HR probes over his workplace behavior, The Post has learned.
Catherine Herridge — an award-winning senior correspondent whose First Amendment case is being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among the
hundreds of employees at CBS parent Paramount who got pink slips on Tuesday, sources told The Post.
The carnage provoked outrage from the rank-and-file at CBS, with some focusing their ire on Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, who pulled down $32 million in total compensation last year despite the company’s ever-shrinking financial profile.
Elsewhere, some suspected the layoffs were more than just cost-cutting. Sources said
Herridge had clashed with CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews — a sharp-elbowed executive who was
investigated in 2021 over favoritism and discriminatory hiring and management practices, as revealed by The Post.
CBS News has laid off Catherine Herridge, a senior investigative correspondent who is embroiled in a First Amendment case.
Sources said CBS News’ Washington bureau, where Herridge covered national security and intelligence, was hit particularly hard.
Among the other Washington casualties, sources said, was CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues, who had weathered HR probes over his workplace behavior, including an alleged incident in which he dressed down a female colleague in a “20-minute rant.”
When the incident was investigated in 2021, insiders said, Ciprian-Matthews — who insiders have accused of promoting minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists — attempted to “blame” the female correspondent and eventually gave Pegues a promotion.
Herridge had allegedly clashed with CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who was the subject of an HR probe in 2021 over discriminatory hiring and management practices.
Herridge may soon be held in contempt of court for not divulging her source for an investigative piece she penned in 2017 when she worked for Fox News and be ordered to personally pay fines that could total as much as $5,000 a day.
A source close to the situation said Fox News is paying for Herridge’s legal counsel.
Herridge’s departure comes as the journalist faces heat for not complying with US District Judge Christopher Cooper’s order to reveal how she learned about a federal probe into a Chinese American scientist who operated a graduate program in Virginia.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/13/media...udes-reporter-fighting-first-amendment-case/#
The scientist, Yanping Chen, had been investigated for years on suspicions she may have lied on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program, according to Herridge’s report.
Also among the Washington casualties, sources said, was CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues — who had weathered HR probes over his workplace behavior, including an alleged incident in which he…
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