Michelle Kosinski paddles her canoe in anckle deep water

I saw it live, then Al Roker..did the weather instead of a map, it was video of Michelle and Katie was marching behind Rooker back and forth..it was funny.

To describe Kosinski as ‘ambitious’ would be the understatement of the year. This is great stuff.

Say it ain’t so Michelle!!! LOL….you’re still hot baby and I’ll paddle a canoe in 4″ of water with you anyday.

I presume that she learned all of her tricks; lying, cheating, dishonesty, here in the wonderful South Florida media market.

LOL! I SAW THAT LIVE TOO!!

Soooo funny! I was cracking up! I was just about to turn off the tv and head out the door too! lol!

She laughed at it though, and was like “They won’t let me go out any further, I might drift away!”

This is truly classic. I wonder if she wears a life preserver when taking a bath in her bathtub. LOL

This isn’t the first time she’s goofed on the Today Show. When she was covering one of those Hurricanes that hit the Carolinas during the summer she closed her story, tossed to Matt and then repeated the same exact thing she just said (lasted about 30 seconds each time) and tossed the story again to Matt. All the while Matt Lauer had this confused look on his face. This is weird, because she was really a good reporter during her time at TVJ.

According to this article she was put up to it by the Today show higher ups.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/kosinkis_canoe_was_a_today_stunt_27105.asp

Sad.. She might need Coast Guard when swimming in a pool! LOL

yeah- this was funny and she is hilarious. i’m sure she had a good laugh about it, but i know the criticism of “staging” must be hurting her. she’s one of those people who’s really hard on herself.
from what i heard, they couldn’t do the shot in the water that was actually deep, because they couldn’t light it or the mike wouldn’t work or something and the current was too strong.
her producers must feel crappy now, because it’s her face on this gaffe! better have a black shot in deep water, than a pretty shot in shallow water, i guess. or in this case, no shot at all.
hopefully, her sense of humor will see her through all the hatin’. you go girl! padlle that boat to the top.

Maybe she is afraid of water.

I would rather worry if the situation could end my contract.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see her for a while. The fact that her NBC coleages continued to make fun of her after the segement only made things worse. It’s got to be the lowest carreer point.

oh this made the FOX news show dayside today at 1…sad

I saw it live….absolutely LAME! It just goes to show you how little journalism goes into today’s news media.

You’re all being ridiculously hard on Michelle. It was an honest mistake, and did not misrepresent the conditions there (the water WAS deep just a little ways away, the producers just didn’t want her in it). And to the suggestion that we may not see her for awhile, she was reporting on NBC Nightly News last night.

Andrew:
When a reporter pulls a stunt like she did, she should be canned. No apologies offered. She tried to hype a story, and it backfired. Like Michelle Gillen some years ago with the carefully placed ignitor in the truck to explode on contact (for the camera). – If I remember, she was canned.

Reporters need to stay with facts and avoid the hype and drama. Cut the crap, in other words.

Andrew,

To say it’s an “honest” mistake is an oxymoron. There is nothing honest about that report and it shows you how much of a rookie reporter she is that she just didn’t change her story or do anything different but kept following her script when the two guys walked infront of the live shot. Pathetic. Thank God Matt and Katie tried to redeems the show’s credibility by re-airing the footage so that it would at least make the show less connected to what she did. It’s insane to put her in a canoe and make believe she’s in 10 feet of water.

Full video here, with toss and back to studio:
http://homepage.mac.com/paulanrichards/chotoday.wmv

Ms. Gillen was not canned, the network could not find anything to fire her for. Also, as The Washington Post reported, it was her producers who were involved with the rigging of the trucks, and they didn’t tell Gillen who constantly protested. At the network, when you’re involved with magazine shows, it’s very much producer-driven … however, Kosinski has no excuse because she likely did not have a producer on the scene with her daily news reports.

In either regard, I may have remembered incorrectly about Gillen. But the same applies. Kosinski should pay for her mistakes. Dont we?

“… might float away…” which is exactly what happend. Monday nights Daily Showwith John Stewart showed her in deeper water and the paddling and while turning, she floated out of frame. John Stewart commented – one thing he has learned ‘is not to float out of frame’.

So she’s a rookie who made a mistake and who has undoubtedly learned her lesson from this experience. For this she should be canned??? Who among us hasn’t screwed up at work? I would guess few on this board could meet the standard many here seem so eager to impose upon her.

andrew, our captain save-a-ho….apperently her beaver was much to eager…lesson learned i’m sure and hope for her sake….funny *hit though, ya gotta admit….what a bone head!

Stop being a douch. I do not impose a greater responsibility on her position than I have on my own. If I were to screw up as badly as she did, I should be canned as well.

Jack said it all—what a bone head!

WHAT is the big deal? She screwed up, it was funny, now move on…

What is the big deal? Maybe you should ask Katie and Matt why it’s a big deal. She’s on national television “pretending” she’s in deep water, rowing a boat in foot of water! Embarassing to the Today show, embarassing to NBC News. Why do you think they replayed the clip and the anchors kept talking about it? Think about it … it was an effort to save the integrity of the program by, even by a little bit, seperating Kosinski from the Today show by mocking her … Don’t think that “Of Mice and Men” comment Katie made was a nice “kudos” for Kosinski, because it was anything but. This was not a mistake, this was terrible journalistic judgment … and THAT is why she should be canned … not for an “honest” mistake, of which this is absolutely not. Funny, yes, but quite serious as well. Don’t expect her to be the next network anchor or investigative reporter seen with integrity.

Anyone know how old Michelle is? I ask because (i) I’m curious; and (ii) the younger she is, the bigger “break” I think she should be given. Also, for anyone who is either in the tv news business or knows how it works, a question: in a tv news on-site crew, is the reporter the “boss” who makes all final decisions, or is there an on-site producer who either shares and/or has complete responsibility? If the latter, that person deserves some/all of the blame for this mishap, no?

What bothers me is that she later said she had never been in a solo canoe before, yet, her producers put her in a brand-new solo canoe and gave her a few minutes to get acclimated to it. I’m a solo canoer, and I can say that’s like putting somebody on rollerblades with a few minutes to practice. Now: in a flood situation there is a big danger of “strainers,” obstacles that trap and drown the unwary. Suppose she had paddled out to deeper water, caught an eddy current, been rolled and caught under something in a current. The fault would have been the producers for coming up with a stupid stunt like this.

Did anyone see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday? He played the clip of when she went back on the canoe and hour later, and had a person behind her walking … while she canoed BEHIND A TREE!!! HAHAHA … Too funny

Laura, Laura, Laura, it is so disappointing to read your input. Your comment is demoralizing on every personal front, particularly free thought. It is this sort of attitude and response that relegates women to few positions of power. Anon, is absolutely correct in that it is a big deal. I dare speculate that you Laura, find no big deal in our Gov lying to bring us to war and getting young Americans kids killed. Journalist were our last bastion of objectivity and neutrality, not anymore. These days they twist, misconstrue and misrepresent FACTS to manipulate and skew your thinking and thus bend it to their will. Be fine with that then Laura. When you find yourself and your family handled, just don’t make a big deal about it. Don’t be such a nymph! Be critical and you’ll make a bigger deal of life!

I would guess Michelle is somewhere between 28-32.

Me make a bigger deal of life? Oh my. Sounds like you need to ease up a little bit on YOUR life. WOW. Sorry, I have a light-hearted attitude towards life and don’t let things like that bother me. Not much I can do to change things, so I take it as it comes.

Thanks for the chuckle this morning, I really needed it! 😀

i think she’s a really good reporter, who was unfortunately caught in a bad logistical position that made HER look even worse. word on the stret is, she tried to get out of it, but her producers talked her into it.
she’s new and i feel bad for her, because when i am really honest with myself, though i consider myself a good journalist, i can see myself making a similar type of mistake.
you’re leading the today show, they send you a canoe, and everyone is telling you it’s a great idea. you’re the only one protesting, and you don’t want to be the one putting the wrench in the system.
damn. i feel for you michell! i think you’re great on the air and hang in there!

I second what thomason said (though I”m not in the biz) 🙂

And I’ll third it!

Regarding the Kosinski story:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/13794898.htm

i know im a little late on this story, but I was watching live that day and at no time did she ever make it appear as if the water she was in was deep. If it was such a big deal, Matt and Katie would not have said anything b/c they wouldnt want to advertise their mistake. I didnt realize it untill they mentioned it and im sure it wouldnt have become a big deal if katie and matt didnt say anything. BTW, she shouldnt be fired, it wasnt even her idea for the canoe.

Right. Because I’m sure they forced her, at gunpoint, into the canoe. Show some accountability.

Accountability – this was very soon after she was first hired. Michelle has this certain style that works very well in most stiuations, and Im sure thats why the people at NBC hired her. I’ve watched her for years on WTVJ, she – she worked over a month at one point without a single day off. And you could tell from her stories what hard work she put into them. The people at Today wanted to play around with one of the reasons they hired her and was following instructions. Accountability??? How about them axing Katie, Matt and Al for going on over a minute over it. If they didn’t do that half the people watching wouldnt have even noticed the guys walking in front of the canoe. After all everyones eyes are glued on Michelle. Look at her now, shes going all over the world covering stories for NBC and they use her more and more. Now what kind of desicion would it have been to let her go after such a stupid, pointless thing that only gave the Today Show evenmore publicity????

If u dont believe me, Mr. Don mentioned this article linked below.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/kosinkis_canoe_was_a_today_stunt_27105.asp

Oh whatever… she is and will always be a conceited brat. She turns her nose up at everyone and she is NOT all that. Great voice I do admit but she is a dime a dozen.

Why do you think Matt & Katie called her out on it? It’s because she’s known for being very underhanded just to get a good story and they wanted to show the viewer the truth. And of course you should never let facts get in the way of a good story. By the way would you ever go canoeing in 12 inches of water? Then why should she.

Brian Andrews is the same exact way. But the average viewer would never know it.

thats my point Mr. Holla, most viewers dont notice it and if Katie and Matt didnt bring it out like they did, Fox news and all the other shows and papers that reported on it wouldn’t have. Besides, either other people were using canoes and she just borrowed theres or she had to have assistance and approval from the “higher ups” to get the canoe.

This story is a year old, and Michelle still can’t look straight into the camera. She looks like Scarlett Johanssen without the airbrush, so she’ll always get work…for now. Even when she’s up the creek without a paddle.