March 1, 2024

"The Court does not reach this result lightly. It recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society and the critical role that confidential sources play..."

"... in the work of investigative journalists like Herridge. Yet the Court also has its own role to play in upholding the law and safeguarding judicial authority."

Said U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper, quoted in "Journalist Catherine Herridge held in contempt for not revealing source/The veteran correspondent for CBS and Fox News was ordered to pay $800 a day in a case that had triggered alarm for press advocates" (WaPo).

54 comments:

Steve said...

And who is running the DOJ now? Seems to me that in spite of Trump's bluster journalists were not prosecuted like this during his administration. If I remember correctly, the Obama administration also went after some journalists.

narciso said...

So cbs fires her steals her notes hand them over to the doj totes legit

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Calling Musk.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

My guess is this is about Biden family corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere.

narciso said...

They went after thd entire ap directory to protect brennan

They subpoenaed journalists to cover up a leak of a failed agency op the mullahs engineered

They went aftet james rosen for a leak about north korea

Biotrekker said...

Just a coincidence? Yeah, and I'm Buck Rogers.

RideSpaceMountain said...

One of the greatest and most hilarious juxtapositions in post-enlightenment history is how the generation that rebelled against the compartmentalized classical perspective of their parents (baby boomers) ended up becoming their parents. The bait and switch worked beautifully. The kids rolling around in the mud at Woodstock became captains of industry, political party leaders, and high-ranked leaders and influencers in the national defense structure. The kids that harangued Nixon and the Pentagon for attacking journalists and being opaque are the kids that are jailing Julian Assange and fining a journalist for not revealing confidential sources (likely high in government).

It is delicious schadenfreude frisson. They became their bomb-dropping warmongering parents, deadset on holding onto power at all costs. They even continued their ancient and very very English rivalry with Russia.

Russia Russia Russia!



WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

No one is allowed to touch Crook Stalin-Joe.

Mark said...

"My guess is this is about Biden family corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere."

Biden Derangement Syndrome is having a field day here.

You know, you could just read any of the articles about this case ...

narciso said...

It concerns a chinese spy in aerospace

rehajm said...

I cannot recall an episode where an American journalist threatened by a court for protecting a source wasn’t meant with unanimous outrage from the media. The absence of outrage here is revealing…

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

the left is corrupt. corrupt. corrupt - tyrannical totalitarianism = the modern democrat party

Walk Away.

Mr Wibble said...

My guess is this is about Biden family corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere.

It's about the corrupt scumbags at the FBI selectively leaking information to a lapdog in order to attack a US citizen without any repercussions.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/catherine-herridge-held-civil-contempt-refusing-divulge-source/

The source is being sought by Yanpin Chen, who has sued the government over the leak of details about the federal probe into statements she made on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program.

Herridge, who was recently laid off by CBS News, published an investigative series for Fox News in 2017 that examined Chen's ties to the Chinese military and raised questions about whether the scientist was using a professional school she founded in Virginia to help the Chinese government get information about American servicemembers.

The stories relied on what her lawyers contend were items leaked from the probe, including snippets of an FBI document summarizing an interview conducted during the investigation, personal photographs, and information taken from her immigration and naturalization forms and from an internal FBI PowerPoint presentation.


Big Mike said...

“The Court does not reach this result lightly.”

Of course they did.

Dave Begley said...

And now that Herridge has been fired, who pays the fine? Her!

Aggie said...

Let us not forget the charges date back to when she was reporting for Fox. CBS in some major cynical ass-covering here. I'm sure all mainstream legacy journalists will be pleased and react with brave determination to do whatever they're told.

tim maguire said...

Is it me, or does every court judgement that starts with "the Court does not reach this result lightly" end with a bad decision undermining rights?

They wouldn't need to include this empty reassurance if their reasoning was solid.

Yancey Ward said...

Two-tiered justice system strikes again. Don't write about Democrat corruption or you will get prosecuted.

tim maguire said...

Steve said...Seems to me that in spite of Trump's bluster journalists were not prosecuted like this during his administration

Trump's "danger to our institutions" was all bluster. Across the board, when he was done railing against whatever miscarriage of justice he was angry about that day, he went and did exactly what our traditions and institutions expected him to do.

He obeyed every court decision he denounced; which contrasts with Biden, who does whatever he wants no matter what the courts say, confident that the media will never call him on it.

rehajm said...

If they jail her shes a hero. If they bankrupt her she’s bankrupt.

Dave Begley said...

Cook was appointed by Obama. Yale undergrad and Stanford Law. President of the Law Review.

Probably hates Trump, the First Amendment and America. Creep.

guitar joe said...

"I cannot recall an episode where an American journalist threatened by a court for protecting a source wasn’t meant with unanimous outrage from the media. "

Judith Miller in 2005.

n.n said...

My guess is this is about Biden family corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Obama/Biden/Clinton ethnic Spring series. Obama redistributes 100 billion dollars in disputed funds to Iran. Biden proposes to redistribute 300 billion in Russian funds. Clinton chose, aborted, and said what a good girl she is.

rhhardin said...

Nothing But the Truth (2008) is the model, Kate Beckinsale refuses to reveal source and is jailed, after a while husband and kids divorce her, she almost gets out but then thrown back in. I forget if she ever got out but her life was ruined.

Dave Begley said...

If Judge Cook presided over a case of holding a CBS reporter in contempt during the Vietnam war, he'd rule against the government and for press freedom.

Situational jurisprudence.

Wince said...

This goes back to her reporting for FOX News in 2017, and it sounds like Fox News may still be backing her up legally.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Joe Biden is a total criminal. A fraud. A husk-puppet.

he opened the border. The corrupt media are either complicit or loyal out of fear.

The democrat party is corrupt and our nation will never be the same unless the corrupt totalitarian left are defeated.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

"when he was done railing against whatever miscarriage of justice he was angry about that day"
WTF are you talking about, "railing against"? Every day? JFC, here's more evidence of the absorption of democrat party talking points into a generally, fairly sanguine mind due to the utter saturation of DNC propaganda in our daily lives. Tim Maguire here is not one of Althouse's Democrats Uber Alles, libtard commentators. But his characterization of Trump's presidency is so far off from the reality of it, and it hasn't even been 5 years since its end. Think hard Tim Maguire and all you weak cucks regurgitating DNC pap like an infant- Did that ever happen, Trump railing against an imagined injustice? Did Trump ever display anger as president, even one time? I'm an angry man. Joe Biden is an angry man. Donald Trump is not, and never has been, and he has never displayed any kind of wayward rage and anger-spew that he is continually accused of, without evidence.

wendybar said...

guitar joe said...
"I cannot recall an episode where an American journalist threatened by a court for protecting a source wasn’t meant with unanimous outrage from the media. "

Judith Miller in 2005.

3/1/24, 9:01 AM

The media was outraged then. WHERE is the media now?? Kissing Biden/Obama butt...as usual.

Josephbleau said...

It seems like someone from the FBI is the leaker, and the subject was seemingly aerospace tech secrets given to China by a Chinese related person, perhaps a Chinese military agent. We know that much of F22 and F35 tech was stolen by China.

So what is a self respecting gen z Hamas supporter supposed to do? Do they hate repression of the press? Do they love Beiden’s FBI? Do they support China over the US ? This must be a hard choice for them and antifa. So confusing.

Temujin said...

The jailing and threatening of journalists happened under Obama's time in office. And it's happened under Biden's time in office. Don't know about you, but when I hear a Democrat tell me electing Trump is electing a fascist and would result in the end of democracy, I tend to think they don't know what either actually means.

And, yes- Herridge was working on a story that made people uncomfortable. You know, something journalists used to do. Now they just fluff their Master's pillows up for them.

Shoeless Joe said...

Isn't amazing how often those citizens who are critical of (or not sufficiently loyal to) the Democratic Party wind up in handcuffs? I'm assuming the time is coming soon that people will start fighting back. What is it they say about tipping points? Gradual, and then all at once?

chuck said...

DC court, all opinions are worthless.

Robert Cook said...

"The media was outraged then. WHERE is the media now??"

Disappearing, droves of journalists laid off, newspapers shuttered, those relative few journalists still working cowering in fear they may be the next to lose their jobs.

n.n said...

The next targets of diversity adjustments: bitter clinger, "burden", toxic masculinity, cracker, homophobw, "=", TERF, etc. Ok?
Forward!

Robert Cook said...

"So what is a self respecting gen z Hamas supporter supposed to do? Do they hate repression of the press? Do they love Beiden’s FBI? Do they support China over the US ? This must be a hard choice for them and antifa. So confusing."

Your concluding two words aptly describe the previous stream of random typing.

mccullough said...

The judge’s ruling is correct.

Reporters have no more right to withhold evidence than any witness.

Freedom of the press refers to technology to publish. The government cannot prohibit the right to widely disseminate information, opinions, art, etc.

The “press” in the First Amendment is not a group of people.

Good for Herridge to keep her promise to the FBI higher up who broke the law by providing her information to ruin someone’s life.


Rusty said...

Josephbleau.
Which begs the question. How much does the Democrat party owe the Chinese? We already know that progressive are virulenty anti free speech. Our complicit and complacent press will not bat an eye.

Yancey Ward said...

"Now they just fluff their Master's pillows up for them."

They fluff alright, but not pillows.

wendybar said...

The DOJ is openly going after Conservative Journalists. WE became Russia when the election was stolen. Alan Dershowitz compared us to Russia.


Glenn Beck
@glennbeck
The FBI has ARRESTED Blaze Media investigative journalist
@TPC4USA
on 4 misdemeanor charges:

- Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority (So, will they arrest the NYT journalist who entered BEFORE Steve through a broken window?)

- Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds (Didn't happen)

- Disorderly conduct in a Capitol building (Didn't happen)

- Parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building (Didn't happen)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1763591311397937529

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/03/01/blaze-media-reporter-arrested-handcuffed-and-charged-for-crime-of-covering-j6-n2393508

Yancey Ward said...

"Is it me, or does every court judgement that starts with "the Court does not reach this result lightly" end with a bad decision undermining rights?"

It shows the judge has a sense of shame, but not the character to face up to it properly.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

XTwitter: Harrys is not the only one

We’re in for dark times ahead.

wendybar said...

Yancey Ward said...
"Now they just fluff their Master's pillows up for them."

They fluff alright, but not pillows.

3/1/24, 11:30 AM

THIS^^^^

wendybar said...


SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!! Nothing at all about this corrupt administration surprises me anymore....
Comment from Legal Insurrection on this subject, that you may find interesting in these upside down world of ours..


TargaGTS | March 1, 2024 at 12:07 pm

You’ll never guess who officiated the wedding of U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper to his wife, a former Clinton Administration lawyer?

Merrick Garland

We’re living in the prologue of a dystopian novel.

Joe Smith said...

I thought this type of case was settled decades ago.

Or does this only apply when it's a liberal judge trying to shut down free speech.

Liberals hate free speech because people might learn something useful.

The Biden regime went full fascist when they took office.

It's being kicked up to 11.

Aggie said...

@Robert Cook said at 10:24: 'Disappearing, droves of journalists laid off, newspapers shuttered, those relative few journalists still working cowering in fear they may be the next to lose their jobs.'

Yes, I'm afraid so. Laid off, because the drivel they distribute is so biased and misleading that nobody believes it any longer, and they forgo tuning in. Or the journalists are being prosecuted, because what they're broadcasting is counter to the official narrative efforts.

There are some journalists that have asserted their independence and started up on venues like substack. They're the ones I respect - and among them are the ones I subscribe to. I have a feeling that people are figuring out that the publishers and broadcasters are distributors of propaganda, who don't have legitimate interests in our well-being - their position as the gate-keepers of the communications industry is dead. The internet wins again. Long live the internet.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This bears repeating and bolding:

"Is it me, or does every court judgement that starts with "the Court does not reach this result lightly" end with a bad decision undermining rights? They wouldn't need to include this empty reassurance if their reasoning was solid."

Darcy said...

I don't think it is going to happen, but if Trump gets re-elected the revenge against the DOJ will be delicious. Assuming he has learned a thing or two about a thing or two.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

If Judge Cook presided over a case of holding a CBS reporter in contempt during the Vietnam war, he'd rule against the government and for press freedom.

Did not the Pentagon Papers case exactly turn on a similar possession and refusal to name a source? Or did the leaker (Ellsburg) self-identify?

Yinzer said...

They are not even trying anymore to hide their contempt for those who dare to disagree with them.

rcpjr said...

This isn't a case of a whistleblower revealing corruption or the like, nor is it a case where the DOJ is attempting to pry info from a journalist. This case involves a private citizen - Dr. Yanping Chen - who was smeared by a specious leak about a federal investigation that had ended after finding no actionable violations. Sources that illegally leak to misdirect or smear should not be protected. This leak appears to have been vindictive; the DOJ and natsec agencies couldn't punish Chen via the legal system so someone decided to punish her by leaking confidential info about the failed investigation. I like Herridge, but she is obstructing justice here and protecting a malicious deep state actor. I hope she keeps losing in court until she goes broke or complies.

guitar joe said...

Wendybar: "Judith Miller in 2005.

3/1/24, 9:01 AM

The media was outraged then. WHERE is the media now?? Kissing Biden/Obama butt...as usual."

Not just highly selective memory, but just plain wrong. I remember an episode of one of Fox's roundtable media shows when Miller had to remind a fellow NYT reporter that sending a reporter to jail--which he defended--for protecting a source was a violation of core journalistic protections. Miller's information seemed to give GWB support in his claims of Iraq's weapons, so she was not just shunned but scorned by others in the press. Your ideology has clouded your memory.

Mark said...

"This case involves a private citizen - Dr. Yanping Chen - who was smeared by a specious leak about a federal investigation that had ended after finding no actionable violations. Sources that illegally leak to misdirect or smear should not be protected."

Bears repeating.

Rusty said...

Mark. Now do Trump and Russia.
Her case against the FBI was dismissed with predjudice. So maybe there is an ember there.
I just remember Marty Sobel catagorically denying that he was a soviet spy in any public media he could. He makes a very good case for himself in his book. Prlem was he was Ira Greenglasses cameraman.