222: To Catch a Corporate Operative: The "Network News" Hit Piece

Hey there. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast. I'm your host, Molly. Hey there. Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast. I'm your host, Molly McPherson. And this episode is a different episode. It is based off of one news article that I read earlier today that absolutely blew my mind. I had to bring it somewhere. I thought it's too long for TikTok. I think this is a perfect podcast piece because I know many of my listeners are, are communication, media, news, leadership related. And there is a through line in this article that plays directly to what I do to public relations, specifically, you know, crisis management, issues management. Because as I was reading it and I thought, oh, this article's starting one place. But I could bring this to clients who I talk to about when they're dealing with these outside groups or special interest groups or people who are very activist. And I happened to read this, I saw it on Twitter after I spoke with a client this morning who was dealing with a very activist minded foe, for lack of a better word. And I thought it tied in nicely. But then as I was reading the article, it had such a surprise twist, almost like a Sixth Sense ending. I could not believe where it ended. So I thought I'm going to share it with you. So here we go. I am going to introduce you. If you haven't seen the article, it's from NPR titled she was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative. How's that for a title? It's going to draw you right in. So this was released, well, I'll say today, December 21, 2022. And NPR reported on this story in. So it was heard on Morning Edition and then it was posted to their website. So NPR's David Folkenflick reported on the story with Mario Arzia and Miranda Green of Floodlight. And that's a nonprofit newsroom that investigates interests like powerful interests, as relates to climate action. So Floodlight kind of sounds like Spotlight from the Boston Globe. Remember that? Great movie? One of my favorite movies. Anyway, so the article goes in. The news story explains what happened to a member of the Florida House of Representatives when he met up with an ABC News producer. But the twist, or the first one, is that she wasn't. So we're in Florida. It's July 2018. There's a producer, her name is Kristen Henschel, and she confronts a politician and she does the typical journalist ambush. She comes at him. So she has a microphone, she has a camera. She's coming at him with all the questions I just know from my experience what people do when they're ambushed, particularly by a journalist. You know, I've worked in media relations. I've worked on the other side. I've worked in news. But I've spent so much time, the last decade of my career doing media training, you know, helping clients with media training. We talk about the ambush interview, but what's interesting, you don't see the ambush interview as much from a journalism point of view. I see it more with people acting like activists, customers or groups, special interest groups. They use a lot of journalistic techniques, but they don't say that they're journalists. So here we have a case of a journalist who's acting like a journalist, but she's not working as a journalist when she confronts Toby Overdorf. So he was a candidate, and what she was talking to him about was 20 dead gopher tortoises. If you can't tell, I'm looking at the article. I'm not reading off a script. I'm going through the article. So she wanted to ask about these gopher tortoises. Now, he knew. Oberdorf knew immediately. And unlike most people when they're ambushed, he knew she was wrong because he's an environmental engineer and he served as a wildlife consultant on the construction project that she was referring to. So he became flustered and said on camera to Henschel that he didn't know what she was talking about, which is actually really good reaction. Okay? He was being truthful because he didn't know it. And in many cases when someone is ambushed, they clam up. Okay? They don't know that this is dirty tricks. They have no idea. They really think that this is a reporter. They're not going to go through their brain and think, is this reporter legit or not? Until now. Okay? So anyway, she then, when he wasn't answering it, she responded like a reporter by saying, well, residents say they aren't buying it. And there was a new style video that was later posted online. So it turned out there was a city investigation. There were no dead tortoises at all. In fact, there was no evidence that there were any reptiles present in this location. Okay, so the article goes deep into, you know, just all the minutiae around, you know, what they were trying. What was happening here, okay, about a firm. And there was two companies that were working together. One was Florida Crystals fpl, which is a sugar conglomerate. And then there's Florida Power and Light. So there's just other, you know, outside interests in here. But what's Interesting about the story is that Kristin Henschel is not a reporter. She worked for ABC News as a freelance journalist. Now, if you're thinking, wow, ABC News again, that is reputation management. Anyone hears about ABC News now, what do they do? They immediately go to Amy Robach and they go to TJ Holmes. They go to two co anchors who it was revealed that they had an affair. Allegedly. We do not know this, but ABC News, they botched the rollout of responding to this affair. And I don't want to be as heavy handed on it because it's difficult because you have two co anchors, two married co anchors that clearly have a lot of on air chemistry together. It's kind of oozing off the screen, if you will. And so they're both married, had an affair, allegedly left their spouses and then became more open about the relationship around people in the industry. However, the Daily Mail put a lot of money into surveilling them and they released the photos and video of them as a couple. But it all came out like, technically they're both separated from their spouses. However, it became a huge story, whatever. And now ABC News kind of has the stain in late 2022. But here, now out of the blue comes this story, which is crazy, but they're able to get somewhat through it, but not entirely because Kristen Henschel did work as a freelance producer. Now networks will hire producers, you know, to fill in on stories. I worked with an NBC producer in my business and she explained exactly, you know, how it worked, that they. It's cost cutting too, you know, so you don't have a full time correspondent sitting around there. You could have a producer that works in a certain area and if they have a story in that area, they'll ask them to go cover it. And they usually, you know, work as a producer. So this is what she was doing working freelance. However, when she was ambushing the this candidate, she was not working for ABC News. Now, dirty tricks in journalism, in politics, political journalism. I mean, this isn't a foreign concept out there when people are trying to get news. But in this case, with Henschel not working as a journalist, this is not a news story. This is an activism story. This is a tactical strategy that activists are now using. I'm not even to the twist yet. That's the first twist. I gotta turn. We're talking sixth Sense level of a turn that's happening in this story. Now, ABC News did not comment on this story, which absolutely surprised me when they first reported that they didn't but then they came out and said or they found two people at ABC News who spoke on background to say that she worked there as a freelance reporter. Then ABC News came out with a statement that said Kristen Henschel was a freelance daily hire who never worked for ABC News on the political stories referenced in the NPR article. She does not currently work for ABC News. So this is how you could talk your way out of a freelance hire like a daily hire. So this is an accurate statement. However, she did work there at one time. But what she was doing, working as a journalist while simultaneously working as an advocate, that's the twist. That is so new now. It just so happens this morning I was working with a client who was dealing with activist minded opponents in their business. They had a petition against this client. There were people talking about them on Reddit and someone called themselves an activist against this client. Now, this client did nothing wrong. And a lot of what this activist group was doing was a lot of it was kind of trumped up. It was wrong. So I'm trying to untangle my client from all of that. But I was explaining the tactics used by these activist minded people. But this. Not in a million, not in a million would I have dreamed that they would have hired someone to act like a journalist. But I got to tell you, it's pretty clever. It's pretty clever. How would anyone know she had a card in her hand that said she worked for ABC News? Anyone would believe that she worked for ABC News. Anyone would believe. And she wasn't being dishonest because she worked for them as a daily hire freelancer. But she didn't say she wasn't working with them on that story. But she didn't lie. Right. And no one's gonna question that. So it's quite brilliant really, if you think about it. But here's the twist. So the story goes on and on and it goes into the more of the minutia and all the different people that work. It's a Webby story and it's interesting. I have the article listed in the show notes. Definitely, definitely read it. But here's the crazy twist. And maybe some of you don't even find this interesting, this twist, but I do. Now I'm just going to backtrack 24 hours at this time yesterday I was on TikTok, not surprise. And I came across a post about Conan O' Brien hosting the 2006 Emmys and I watched the whole TikTok because it was his opening act or the opening number for the Emmys that's not a number. What do you call it when it's the Emmys? I don't know the opening. And I remembered it because it was so funny. Conan o' Brien starts off. He shows up on an island after a plane crash. No, he's on a plane. The plane crashes, and then he ends up on the TV show Lost. And he's on the island, and then he goes down the hatch like in the TV show Lost. And then he comes in and crashes through the ceiling on the office. And then after the office, he. I don't remember where he went, but at the very end, he walks in a door and he's on the set of To Catch a Predator. That was the NBC News investigative report. Starring or not starring. The correspondent was Chris Hansen. Is it all coming back to you now? Where he would expose predators that would be coming to homes to, you know, to hook up with young people. But the clip, which watching it now, like I was watching it, so Conan o' Brien kind of ends up in this kitchen and he's on the grainy black and white, you know, video. And Chris Hansen comes in and Chris. And Conan o' Brien's really nervous that he's there. But I'm thinking, okay, that was in 2006. I don't know if that skit would have worked in 2020. Well, one reason it would have worked is because Chris Hansen, if you remember, was fired from NBC and the program To Catch a Predator because it was revealed in the National Enquirer that Chris Hansen had a mistress. I remember this story. I remember when it happened. And I remember who the mistress was. The mistress was Kristin Caldwell and she was a reporter for. I'm not even looking this up. I should Google this to verify it. But I'm most positive I remember this correctly. She worked as a reporter for the NBC affiliate in Palm Beach. And I actually don't know if Palm beach has an affiliate or if it's Miami. I'm almost positive it was Palm Beach. And so they clearly met through NBC. So she has an affair with Chris Hansen. It's revealed. Oh, look at this. The whole story comes around because I talked about ABC News and Amy Pocket, T.J. holmes. What do you know? It's our full circle moment. But there's one more twist. Chris Hansen loses his job. Kristen Caldwell loses her job. And I remember thinking at the time, man, that would suck. You're a young reporter. This is your first big job at a network affiliated local TV station. And you lose your job because you're Having an affair with an older man. Oh. At the network. Oh. What I thought at the time, what is ever going to happen to Kristin Caldwell? Like, what is she going to do for a job? It turns out she got hired again at ABC News as a freelance daily hire reporter going by the name Kristin Henschel. How crazy is that? Also Kristen Henschel. If you go to her LinkedIn, she doesn't say her previous name. She says that she works for Good Morning America. Again with the bad rap. Oh my gosh. So she said she works at ABC News. She said that she went to school in Palm beach, but she doesn't say that she worked for NBC as Kristin Caldwell. She is now working not only as a journalist or formerly as a journalist for ABC News, but also as an advocacy consultant. So in every episode of the podcast, I always include one indestructible PR tip. This is this one easy leave behind tip that is something that you can remember to help you build an indestructible reputation. And here it is. If you work in communication, if you're a leader, if you're a CEO, if you're a business owner, if you are anyone who could be in the eye of some type of group, either an advocacy group, a special interest group, or if people in your universe, in your milieu, in your business, may mobilize and form together to strike out at you in an activist type manner. Be prepared for the fake journalist. Be prepared for the former journalist. That's why I take that back. Not fake journalist, former journalist. Someone who knows the moves, someone who knows how to speak like a journalist, act like a journalist. They're holding the camera. They got the mic, got their card. Be prepared for this tactic. I'm telling all my clients about this tactic because I'm not kidding. This is a great tactic. Your special interest group. This is a fantastic tactic. You go there with a camera and you get someone on video thinking that's a reporter and they're not going to answer. You want to get them to say no comment. Then you slap it up online on your site. It's brilliant. But now it's exposed. So hopefully you will never fall victim to this form of dirty tricks. That's all for this week on the podcast. Thanks so much for listening. We're bye for now.