Nineteen years ago, during a northeastern storm, Matt Lauer was at the height of his public fame and private infamy. While hosting the Today Show, Lauer cut to a field reporter named Michelle Kosinski who was doing a "live" shot. She was in Wayne, New Jersey reporting on the storm. Perhaps Kosinski was looking for some stolen valor or an Emmy, or maybe she just lacked self-awareness—in any event, the shot showed Kosinski sitting in a canoe with a paddle in hand. The rest became an internet legend.
In a nasal tone that sounds like a comedian making fun of a reporter, Kosinski intoned:
“Good morning, well obviously we are getting a break from the rain but not the flooding…”
Just as she said “flooding” two men walked through her live shot. The water was ankle-deep. Oops. She looked ridiculous. When the Today hosts lit her up for the absurd optics and her blown Emmy moment, she claimed she wasn’t allowed to canoe into deeper water for fear of drifting away. She said that as she drifted away from the camera.
Her shot was intended to evoke a sense of apocalyptic doom but instead, it made her and NBC look preposterous.
Kosinski moved on to CNN, but there was no Emmy for this "reporting." She did somehow eventually win one for her coverage of the 2008 presidential election, but for these floods—not so much.
Anyway, Kosinski left CNN in 2017. She no longer had to hide any pretense of being a partisan hack. Kosinski hates MAGA (aka anyone who disagrees with her), and she doesn’t hide it.
She recently attended a dinner party with her Retired Banker and Trust Fund husband Kimbell Duncan. Several couples were invited. According to Kosinski, the conversation took a nasty turn. She describes how an Ivy League-educated couple revealed that they were “MAGA.” Well not exactly, she just assumed they were. Kosinski claims that the conversation drifted into politics when the duo said they wouldn’t even allow their children to apply to those schools:
Our sister site, PJ Media mocked her effeteness and disdain for anything outside her mental orbit.
Kosinski seemed very clear that vigilance was the watchword. MAGAs are everywhere and are seemingly normal people. But behind that glass of Chardonnay, they are waiting for the moment when they can force you into the back of a pickup, jam a red hat on your head, make you eat beef jerky or something, and possibly read to you from the Gospel of John.
In the middle of her screed, Kosinski's (by then very unwelcome) guests were “MAGAts”.
She went on.
Another “crew” (aka MAGAts) used air quotes when discussing climate change. But Kosinski’s horror wasn’t over. She claims that her then-unwanted MAGAts took to “seething umbrage” when her friend mentioned the damage Trump had done. Kosinski said the MAGAts shut up because:
“They would [have been] eviscerated on all idiotic points, especially on the economy.”
I imagine that when the evening wrapped up, Kosinski instructed the hired help to clean up as she and her husband retired to the sitting room. In her well-practiced nasally voice dripping with venomous contempt and intellectual superiority, Kosinski said:
"OOooohhh my Gaaad Kimbell, we had dinner with MAGAts...we must fumigate the dining area before we set foot in there again! Let's use the guest house until it's done."
Kimbell: "Oh yes, pumpkin, let's..."
For the next two days, Kosinski lashed out at "MAGAts," claiming that they were the closed-minded and vicious ones.
What are the chances that Kosinski and her banker/trust fund husband are in tune with everyday Americans? Zero point zero.
Four years after her near-death experience with New Jersey floodwaters, she bought a 12,000 sq. ft. Coral Gables home for $5.3 million. She sold it four years later for a measly $1.8 million increase. She must have sold her $7.03 million shack so she and her new Trust Fund Husband could stretch their legs. I have no idea where Michelle and Kimbell live now. Certainly not with the "poors" in her old neighborhood. Her old home is barely worth $12.9 million. Twelve thousand square feet is so "unwashed masses".
What are the chances that either Kimbell or Michelle brought groceries from Costco for their nightmare-with-the-MAGAts dinner party? There is zero chance that she has any idea what the cost of butter or the cost of any other staple might be. Her wine isn’t store-bought, it’s shipped to Mr. and Mrs. Banker and stored in their temperature-controlled wine cellar. Shopping is so “common man.”
Kosinski drips contempt for anyone who gets in the way of her ivory tower view. Her disgust for anyone who disagrees with her didn’t start when she got dumped by CNN. The Fourth Estate isn’t the vanguard of truth-telling, it’s the Fifth Column. Working reporters at NBC, CNN, and WaPo, to name but three, are full of Kosinskis. They hate you.
As much as you dislike legacy media—it might not be enough.