Profile of Michael Kinsley on Famous Like Me

Michael Kinsley (born March 9, 1951 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American political journalist and commentator. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire. Kinsley has been a notable participant in the mainstream media's development of online content.

Kinsley attended the Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, then graduated from Harvard University in 1972. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at Oxford, then returned to Harvard for law school. While still a third-year law student, he began working at The New Republic and finished his Juris Doctor degree in the evening program at George Washington University Law School.

Kinsley became editor of The New Republic in 1979 and wrote that magazine's famous TRB column for most of the 1980s and 1990s. That column was also reprinted in a variety of newspaper op-ed pages, including the Washington Post, and made Kinsley's reputation as a leading political commentator. Kinsley also served as editor at Harper's (for a year and a half in the early 1980s), managing editor of Washington Monthly (in the mid-seventies, while still in school), and American Editor of The Economist (a short-term, honorary position, roughly akin to a sabbatical for an academic).

In 1989, Kinsley agreed to take the job as co-host of CNN's Crossfire. Representing the liberal or left-wing position in these debates, he remained on the show for six years.

After leaving Crossfire, Kinsley returned to his editorial roots, relocating to Seattle and taking a position with Microsoft as the founding editor of its online journal Slate. In 1999 he was named "Editor of the Year" by the Columbia Journalism Review. Kinsley stepped down from Slate in 2002, shortly after disclosing that he suffers from Parkinson's Disease. At the same time, he married Patty Stonesifer, president of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Kinsley next moved to the Los Angeles Times, where he started as Editorial and Opinion Editor in April 2004. However, Kinsley maintained his Seattle residence and often worked from there, commuting to Los Angeles on a part-time basis. During his tenure, Kinsley tried to overhaul the paper's editorial page and led an abortive experiment with wikitorials, while also receiving criticism from USC professor Susan Estrich over the lack of editorials written by women. After an apparent falling out with the publisher, Kinsley announced his departure in September 2005. He continues to write a weekly column which appears in the Washington Post and Slate Magazine.

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