It appears longtime Fox News host Shep Smith’s departure from the network was just the beginning.
Fox News’ chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge announced her departure from the network Thursday morning and will join CBS News as a senior investigative correspondent.
Two people with knowledge of Herridge’s departure told CNN Thursday that she was in talks to join CBS prior to Smith’s resignation earlier this month that came in the middle of a multi-year contract. Last week, CNN’s Jeff Zucker said that he’d consider hiring the “very talented” Smith as soon as his Fox News contract allows him.
Fox News host Sean Hannity tweeted Thursday morning that Herridge “will be missed.”
I want to send all my best wishes to Catherine Herridge—one of the best & hardest working investigative reporters in the country. There have been countless nights she would stay late to break news on Hannity. Catherine thank you so much, congratulations, but you will be missed.
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) October 31, 2019
A CBS News statement Thursday morning noted that Herridge is leaving Fox News after 23 years and is the second longtime Fox News journalist to leave the network this month following Smith’s departure. Herridge is slated to report original investigations and cover national security and intelligence matters for CBS News.
“CBS News has always placed a premium on enterprise journalism and powerful investigations,” Herridge said in the CBS News statement. “I feel privileged to join a team where facts and storytelling will always matter.”
In another statement released by Fox News Thursday morning and obtained by TPM, Herridge thanked Fox Corporation co-chairman Rupert Murdoch and echoed her “facts matter” sentiment.
“I am grateful to Mr. Murdoch for the opportunity to cover the most impactful stories of the last 23 years, most recently the Special Counsel report and impeachment inquiry,” Herridge wrote in the Fox News statement. “I have received great personal satisfaction from mentoring the next generation of reporters and producers and sharing my journalistic values — that facts matter and enterprise reporting will always win the day.”
Fox News’ opinion hosts have become increasingly subservient to President Trump over the years, setting up what seems to be a conflict between the commentators and the network’s hard news reporters. The Daily Beast reported at the time of Smith’s resignation that he had clashed with his primetime colleagues.
However, a source at Fox told TPM Herridge “had a good relationship with primetime” hosts at the network and appeared across variety of programming.
Neither Herridge, nor Shep Smith will be missed by the Fox News audience. In the words of the great Terry Pratchett: “People don’t want “news”, they want “olds”, which is a confirmation of what they already knew” .
It looks like the real journalists at Fox have decided to leave, which will make it even more of a propaganda shop than it is…at some point that’s going to require confrontation, because we can’t survive a national media powerhouse that subsists on telling lies. We’re at the edge of it now, and that’s largely due to Fox blasting out Republican lies most of the time…at some point they must be held accountable for their behavior.
I understand that Baghdad Bob and the ghost of Josef Goebbels are looking for work, so I’d suppose Fox won’t have any trouble finding replacements for their lost ‘news’ staff.
Wow…I used to work with Catherine at another network and she always seemed so bright and balanced and trustworthy. I always wondered what she was doing at Fox. But I guess it may have been a situation where something that started as a bad odor turned into an unbearable stench. Congrats Catherine…and best of luck!
If Fox had any class, every opinion show would have a caveat at the beginning and the end, read by the host. The caveat would say that this show is not to be confused with journalism and that it is strictly for entertainment purposes only, and go on to say that actual news should be sought out from news programs and a variety of other sources, including newspapers. Yes, Maddow should do it, also. But Fox News is the name of their network, with many shows that clearly are not news, so it’s most important there to explain that to viewers.