ABC News has severed ties with Kristen Hentschel, a freelance TV producer for the news outlet, after it was revealed she was moonlighting as a corporate operative.
Television news producer Kristen Hentschel was doing precisely what journalists should do on a searing hot day in Stuart, Fla., in July 2018: She confronted a politician with unwelcome questions. Microphone and ABC News business card in hand, Hentschel rushed up to a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives before a debate, the candidate recalls, and asked him about 20 dead gopher tortoises that were reportedly found at a nearby construction site. Florida designates the species as threatened. A city investigation found no dead tortoises. In fact, it found no evidence at all that any of the reptiles had ever been present. That wasn’t the only surprise. Though Hentschel has done freelance work for ABC, she was not there for the network, but for a political consulting firm.
