See Update below: Michelle back on the flooding beat!
If you're Michelle Kosinki's agent, you surely have a verboten vocabulary list. Words you don't want your ward ever to say on air. Above all, of course, "canoe." But others too. Ones like "puddle," "slosh," and certainly . . . "row."
But there was Michelle on this morning's "Today," reporting from London on Potter-mania. And you guessed it . . .
NBC REPORTER MICHELLE KOSINSKI: There's been controversy and all kinds of news stories here in London about this book coming out. It even caused a bit of a row, as they say in Britain. Because the publisher's recommended price for this book, 600 pages long, is about 18 pounds, or roughly 36 American dollars, definitely not pocket change. Well, some of the big box retailers here have decided to of course buy in huge volumes and to sell well below wholesale costs. The independent booksellers around England have said, hey, we can't compete with that.
Ruh-roh! What's worse, Michelle mispronounced the dreaded R-word. She pronounced it row as in row, row, row your . . . canoe. The correct pronunciation when the word is used, as here, to mean an uproar, rhymes with cow or vow.
Whoops. You might call it Michelle's latest 
row row.
UPDATE 7-24: Wow! The MSNBC producers are really playing with fire, or better said, water. Look who turned up on "Morning Joe" today, reporting on the flooding in England. Nary a canoe in sight.
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Sink or swim with
July 21, 2007 - 16:41 ET by bigtimerSink or swim with NBC...Michelle just keeps treading water... while on land.
What a gal.
LOL
Ah yes. Pretty and smart.
July 21, 2007 - 16:44 ET by RackieAh yes. Pretty and smart.
Speaking of Harry Potter
July 21, 2007 - 17:49 ET by RiharI mentioned this earlier but it got buried so deep under an argument with a liberal that probably nobody will see it but here goes:
A few years back I saw on a news report a little girl and her mother waiting in line to get the newest Harry Potter book at the time. She was holding a sign that said "Bush is Voldemort" and repeated it for the news cameras that were interested in it. I don't know if the kid will remember it when she grows up but I hope she paid attention to the stories that J.K. Rowling wrote.
Whether or not the little girl does, it got me thinking. Voldemort (for those who don't know) is the bad guy who takes joy in killing those who don't believe in his "magical people are superior/all others don't deserve to live" ideology. Potter is the one who recognizes this as a threat and wants to stop it.
The problem is that there are those in the (magical) government who don't believe that Voldemort and his Death Eater (soldiers) are a threat or even real for that matter. On top of that the newspaper (The Daily Prophet) is on a dirt-digging expedition led by a reporter that is more interested in smarmy stories than the truth.
So let's review: One group led by a charismatic leader is trying to use his soldiers to kill all non-believers. His soldiers are disguised as normal people in the community and do not wear uniforms. On the other side is a person who is among the prime targets of these agressors and is trying to stop it and warn others in the community that they need to come together and defeat this enemy. All the while the government is saying that the whole thing is overblown and the war with the enemy is little more than a "bumper sticker". All the while the press is... well, need I say more?
Does this remind you of anything?
When a liberal speaks, the truth is busy elsewhere.
Just like everything else
July 21, 2007 - 21:48 ET by JerryJust like everything else in la-la-liberal-land, the little girl had it bass-ackwards. Of course, I'm sure she developed this hatred of President Bush on her own and was not brainwashed by her liberal parents.
When asked if he went to war with Iraq to derail the impeachment
vote: “I don’t think any serious person would believe that any
President would do such a thing." - President Clinton (Dec 1998).
Good catch
July 22, 2007 - 00:28 ET by RiharI think you hit the nail on the head. If she even wrote the sign herself, I'm sure someone else was providing the inspiration.
I don't know J.K. Rowling's politics but I can guess. However my interpretation of the story at it's most base levels makes me think that she "gets it" deep down. If not deep DEEP DEEP down.
When a liberal speaks, the truth is busy elsewhere.
Typo Mark?
July 21, 2007 - 17:52 ET by acumenIs the following excerpt from your post a typo or did Kosinski actually say this Mark: Well, some of the big box retailers here have decided to of course buy in huge volumes and to sell well below wholesale costs.
I was under the impression buying in huge volumes is synonymous with wholesale costs. So if "big box retailers" were to "buy in huge volumes" then how could they "sell well below wholesale costs"? Is Kosinski suggesting these big box retailers are intentionally selling the books "well below" what they are paying for them - Essentilly losing money on every book? Or did Kosinski mean to say retail costs instead of wholesale costs?
I have to admit, I'm up the asphalt without a paddle on this one Mark.
Acumen, that is what she
July 21, 2007 - 18:46 ET by Mark FinkelsteinAcumen, that is what she said. I'm guessing some of them are selling it as a loss leader.
Need leg pictures of Liberal Chics
July 21, 2007 - 21:31 ET by Lame CherryMr. Finkelstein, I blogged on my site a month ago that liberal women must be seen and not heard.
Behold Perky Couric, they matron her up and no one watches her. She only had high ratings when she had those chubby thighs on display daily like Joan Lundin said the execs at ABC talked of with delight of chics who worked there.
So I apprecicate your work, but since these liberal women no one likes them when they are talking and we are having to read what they are saying can you please use leg shots of these reporterettes to help the medicine or I guess their poison pen go down.
Of course this does not apply to Keith Olberman or his gal pal Chris Matthews legs when you write on them lol.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
Row
July 22, 2007 - 03:04 ET by slpIn unsophisticated places such as Ohio and Arizona, a bit of a row is pronounced the same as to row a canoe.
The word is paddle.
July 22, 2007 - 08:09 ET by CTOne paddles a canoe as opposed to rowing a boat.