Addicted to Betrayal but You're Relevant*
*Until you're not relevant and your evil deeds catch up with you...
This morning I read an article about former CBS journalist Catherine Herridge. She testified yesterday about an ongoing defamation suit in which she’s involved. You can read the article here.
Let me tell you about my experience with Catherine Herridge. On October 12, 2019 I woke-up early because we were having new flooring installed as part of The Great Dishwasher Disaster of 2019 that resulted in over six months of repair and construction. It’s even mentioned in Alex’s book! We were also having family photos taken that day so it was a busy Saturday.
After we got the workers settled in to do their thing, Alex asked me to go upstairs with him where he showed me an email from at-the-time-Fox-journalist Catherine Herridge. The first thing I noticed was the email had been sent to Alex’s father as well. It was chilling to read this and know they had identified Alex as being someone who had leaked information. This is an inaccurate narrative, but it is one that would later catch on and ultimately destroy his military career. In addition to this email, there was a story on Fox that specifically said someone at the NSC leaked classified information about the July 25th phone call.
For context this was the “in-between” time for us which might have been the worst part because everything was unknown; the whistleblower’s report was public, but Alex hadn’t been named publicly and we still naively thought maybe nothing would come of it because we only saw one piece of the bigger picture. My biggest fear was someone would release his name and we would wake up to journalists and crazy MAGA protestors in our yard. During the Trump administration it seemed that happened with terrifying regularity.
I read the email and immediately began shaking. I now know that is an adrenaline response but I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t sleep for days. Our main floor was a construction zone so I would wake up and sit in the guest room waiting for the sun to rise. Other than Alex’s brother Eugene and his wife Cindy, we couldn’t talk to anyone about what was happening. Even thought there would be scarier times to come, this email marked the first time I felt vulnerable and very, very afraid. Her tactics weren’t fair and she was trying to intimidate Alex, his father, and our entire family.
So, back to Catherine Herridge’s testimony yesterday. In her opening statement, she said:
“As you know, in February, I was held in contempt of court for refusing to disclose my confidential sources on a national security story. I think my current situation can help put the importance of the Press Act into context. One of our children recently asked me if I would go to jail, if we would lose our house, and if we would lose our family savings.”
She wants freedom to do her job freely while taking no responsibility for her recklessness. What about my child? You can imagine how challenging it was to live with unbelievable stress, uncertainty, and straight up fear while still trying to parent as if everything was normal. When has she shown concern for the people whose privacy and safety she disregarded when pursuing a story? I take no pleasure in hearing her child feels this way, but it’s amazing to me she is asking for space and grace when she was unwilling to give that to our family and many others I am sure.
I firmly believe in freedom of the press, but it still comes with responsibility. One cannot conduct their professional life with loose ethics and values and not expect to face consequences. For all I know, she is right in this instance but I am not inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt because she didn’t give it to Alex and our family and, frankly, I’ve never seen her do anything that doesn’t reek of partisanship and hackery.
I don’t believe in karma in the traditional definition, but when you put hate, negativity, and plain old meanness into the world it’s going to come back to you because the energy you give off is what you attract in return.
One final note about that day…after taking family pictures, we were going to Cindy’s brother’s house to celebrate her nephew’s birthday. Ellie went straight to the party but Alex and I went home first to check on the new floor and change clothes. It was a little stuffy so we turned on the air conditioner to circulate some air (most of our windows didn’t open but we didn’t have the money to replace them). I immediately smelled gas and panicked! Our neighbor was a master plumber so Alex went to get him and he discovered the gas line in the basement was on the ceiling/under the main floor and when they were installing the new hardwood flooring a nail gun punctured the gas line. Now I look back and laugh at the absurdity of it all but when I look at the photos we took that day I think, “We got through that hard day and we’ll get through many more.”
Keep moving forward, y’all…and don’t be mean 💚
Ah, karma. That nasty hack posing as a journalist is getting some.