Caught!

The Today Show on NBC had a bit of priceless television. They had a news correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, in Wayne, New Jersey covering the flooding in the area.

The area has seen about a foot of rain over the last eight days - and most people in the region know that its been pretty bad. Wayne has been pretty hard hit as have Oakland, New Jersey.

So, when their intrepid correspondent was being filmed in a canoe, one would think that the water was particularly deep.

Yet, the unexpected happened.

Now, this doesn't minimize the flooding plight for those in New Jersey (or anywhere else in the Northeast affected by the flooding, but it does raise questions over how the media frames their shots and comes on the heels of the media complaining that President Bush 'staged' a televised video-conference with troops in Iraq.

UPDATE:
Added link to the story, as originally carried on Newsbusters. HT: LGF

UPDATE:
Here's the deal with the flooding in Northern New Jersey. Things are pretty bad in Wayne, with additional flooding possible today and tomorrow due to more rain and a lag time between when the rain stops upstream and hits these low lying areas. Yet despite all the rain and flooding, here's some perspective:

More than 300 people were evacuated in Bergen County from Wednesday night to Thursday morning: 150 in Lodi, 100 in Hillsdale, 50 in Westwood and 30 in Oakland, he said.

No injuries were reported from the flooding, although authorities braced for the possibility of a second day of evacuations in Lodi, Hague said.

75 people had been evacuated in Wayne, and evacuations may be forthcoming in Little Falls.

Ramsey, so far, has recorded 14.96 inches of rain since Oct. 7; Lodi has received 10.16 inches; Pompton Plains 14.06 inches, Wayne 12.85 inches and Paramus 10.55 inches.

At 12.18 inches, this has been the wettest October in Hawthorne since 1893, Ziff said.

And there's still the chance for all those areas to pick up more rain in the next 48 hours.

UPDATE:
Dr. Reo Symes at Ace of Spades has noticed this story as well. He's got links to the video. Quite funny stuff.

And here's the truly sad thing. The Today Show is produced in NYC. Wayne, New Jersey is about 30 miles away from Rockefeller Center as the crow flies. I'm sure that the Katie Couric has shopped at the nearby Willowbrook Mall. These are local camera crews who know that every time it rains hard that this area floods out. Yet they went for the sensationalistic journalist in a canoe route? Were hipwaders simply out of style for this flooding incident? It's a serious story and yet we get this nonsense? Sheesh!

UPDATE:
Crooks and Liars notes that the West Coast feed for MSNBC doesn't show Ms. Kosinski in the boat. It shows her in hip waders. Guess the egg on their face got washed off in time for them to put Ms. Kosinski in a less compromising position. Others who've noted this media mess - Right We Are, Blogs for Bush, Datter.com, The Political Teen, and Barking Moonbat Early Warning.

UPDATE:
How could I miss Michelle Malkin's comments "Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream...