Emmy award winning investigative journalist Catherine Herridge on Friday discussed how she is being held in civil contempt where she has been fined $800 a day for not divulging confidential sources.

Herridge explained her situation to Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn on her podcast "Unmuted," where the pair also discussed the constantly changing media landscape, and Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform X, which Herridge has used to drop some of her latest investigative pieces. 

The interview was shared exclusively with Just The News.

The reporter claimed that passing legislation like the Press Act is critical for journalism because it would give smaller journalists the protection to offer sources confidentiality without fear of legal repercussions, except to prevent terrorism or imminent violence. The Press Act has not been passed so far, but was introduced in the Senate in 2023. 

Herridge is currently being held in civil contempt of court because she refused to give up sources in her national security reporting for Fox News. 

"What concerns me most, Senator, is that we're in this new marketplace of smaller independent newsrooms and independent journalists," Herridge said. "Unless we really have protections for these laws, like the Press Act for example, they will be buried out of existence. 

"The only reason I'm able to take this principled stand, in part, is because I have the backing of my former employer," she continued. "Because the legal costs, the emotional costs of taking on a case like this, a lot of journalists are not going to be able withstand that, and my concern is that these diverse voices will be lost unless we have these kinds of protections."

Blackburn also spoke to Herridge about the changes in the media landscape over the decade, which has seen a shift from cable news reporting and legacy media, to a rise in independent journalism, the use of social media, and podcasts.

"There is no doubt we've got a changing media landscape. That is why so many of you that are watching unmuted are watching the podcast instead of sitting down and watching TV," Blackburn said in her introduction. "One thing we found is 90 million Americans a week are watching podcasts. That is a very different way of gathering their news. 250 million people are using X every day, and 74% of those X users are getting their political news on X."

Herridge agreed that the change has become prominent over the past 10 years, where viewers and news consumers have more choices about how and where to consume the news.

"Ten years ago, if you didn't trust what you watched, you didn't like what you watched, you didn't have a lot of choices," Herridge replied. "But now the technology has created this off ramp to platforms like X, like YouTube, like Instagram. 

"People are taking their sort of thoughts and their feelings of sort of a lack of trust, and they're exiting the marketplace, and that's why we're seeing this collapse with the numbers, with corporate media, and I think this will only accelerate in the next year or two," she added.

Herridge said she used platforms like X to boost her stories after she was fired from CBS News, and found that it was the best place to get interactions. One story she posted about COVID-19 vaccine injuries got four million engagements.

The journalist also claimed that sharing stories on social media was more immediate, and gave her more flexibility. 

"We felt that we could do it in an environment that wasn't censored," Herridge said. "But then, I think, more significantly, Senator, we saw the government act. We saw the Department of the Army respond to our reporting on X, I think, in an accelerated manner, faster than even if I had been at CBS News." 

The full interview can now be viewed on the senator's YouTube channel.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.