Max Kolonko

Max Kolonko (born Mariusz Max Kolonko in 1965, Lubliniec, Poland) is a conservative Polish-American journalist, political scientist, author, former White House correspondent and political commentator. He won the Kisiel Prize for journalism in 2015.

Early life and education He graduated from the First High School in Bydgoszcz, where he was a classmate of Radosław Sikorski, the current Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. He holds a degree in journalism from the University of Warsaw and in political science from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

In the 1980s, while still a student, he hosted the radio program Zapraszamy do Trójki ("Welcome to Trójka") on Polish Radio Channel Three. He also collaborated with Polish Radio, hosting the program Lato z Radiem ("Summer with the Radio"). He received the Young Journalists’ Award twice, recognizing him as one of the most talented young journalists of his generation. In 1988, he moved to the United States.

Journalism career Kolonko was a television correspondent in the United States and wrote two books in the field of journalistic and political commentary. He was a contributor for the American portal The Huffington Post, where his articles were published between May 2011 and December 2017. He is also the founder of MaxTV, an internet-based television platform initially launched on YouTube.

From April 2007, he was the host and producer of the program Discovering America, about the lesser-known aspects of the USA, for TV4. The program's format was created by Kolonko, called by him "hands-on reporting", and based on original material combined with a narrative by the reporter, who participates in the events being covered. Kolonko was the only television reporter who cast an Oscar statuette, operated NASA's "The Crawler", driving the space shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad at Cape Canae, and put his hands on nuclear buttons.

In 2007–2008, he was the face of a television advertising campaign for an American insurance company Liberty Direct (Liberty Mutual's operations in the Polish market). In 2008, he received two awards (silver and bronze) at the 9th Effie Awards in the Launch and Media House categories for the Liberty Direct advertising campaign.

In May 2008, he became the face of Newsweek's "English at Max" advertising campaign, covering television, radio, internet, outdoor media, and the publisher's titles. Axel Springer Polska: Newsweek, Forbes, Dziennik, Fakt, Auto Świat, TV Kultura and Przegląd Sportowy.

He was a commentator for the 2012 United States presidential election for Onet.pl and the Superstacja Television channel. He hosted the program Kwadrans na Maxa on the Superstacja Television channel.

An interview with him titled "Jakiś gówniarz mówi mi, jak mam żyć" ("Some brat is telling me how to live") won the Best of Onet 2012 award for the best article of the year, generating over one million views, more than 3,500 comments, and sparking a discussion about the state of journalism in Poland.

He was invited as an expert on U.S. foreign policy to television networks such as CBS, ABC, and CNN, as well as to the Goethe-Institut in Washington and Berlin (in May 2011, he participated in the conference Fascination America – Fascination Europe).

In 2004, a survey by OBOP ranked him among the four most popular journalists in Poland. In August 2008, he was ranked ninth among the most valuable journalists for advertisers in Poland (64th on the list of the most valuable Polish celebrities) by Forbes magazine. 2001 – Wiktor Award in the category "Most Highly Regarded Journalist, Commentator, and Publicist". 2001 – Grand Press Award - Journalist of the Year 2008 – Silver Award at the 29th Telly Awards for the documentary "The Shield" about the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense. 2008 – Silver and Bronze Awards at the 9th Effie Awards in the Launch and Media House categories for the Liberty Direct advertising campaign. 2009 – Bronze Award at the 10th Effie Awards in the Financial Services category for the advertising campaign "Mariusz Max Kolonko in Poland" – Ogilvy Group. 2012 – The interview conducted with him, titled "Some Kid Tells Me How to Live," won the Best of Onet award for Best Article of the Year, generating over one million views, more than 3,500 comments, and sparking a discussion about the level of journalism in Poland.

Dubbing 2005 Robots – as Max Kolanko 2008 Journey to the Moon – as Narrator

Media activity and public reception

Max Kolonko has been described as the "Jesus of the Internet", a "star of the Internet", the "first journalist of the fifth estate",

From 2012 to 2023, Kolonko operated several YouTube channels, including Max Kolonko – MaxTV, which featured his commentary series Mówię jak jest (Telling It Like It Is), and MaxTV News (2013–2023). Between 2017 and 2022, he also published content on his official Facebook page. In total, his presence across YouTube (MaxTV and MaxTVNews), Facebook, and X amassed nearly two million subscribers and followers, with total viewership exceeding 100 million. His programs, which included commentary on social and political issues in both the United States and Poland, were primarily produced in Polish, with optional English subtitles available for some episodes.

Episodes of Telling It Like It Is exceeded 400,000 views within the first month of the channel's launch in late November 2012. MaxTVNews, featuring 153 videos, ranked 77th on the same list, with 426,646 subscribers.

One of Kolonko's commentaries—an episode in which he argued that certain British and American news outlets had manipulated reports about an attack on a war veteran in London—became particularly popular, reaching 1.3 million views, while the least-viewed episode attracted about 30,000 viewers (as of June 9, 2013). recorded in 2024 by the Polish rap group [Szamz]. The song includes the phrase "Telling It Like It Is, Max Kolonko" (Polish: “Mówię jak jest, Max Kolonko”), regarded as one of Kolonko's most distinctive trademarks. He also started an arguments with other far-right politicians in Poland like Janusz Korwin-Mikke and Robert Winnicki, lost their voters in a meantime.

In 2020 he was planning to run in presidential elections in Poland. However he was unable once again to collect enough signatures (100 000) to became a candidate. Since then he's in denial about fairness of the elections in Poland at all.

Max Kolonko's Peace Plan for Ukraine In February 2022, two days before the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Kolonko published a Peace Plan for Ukraine, proposing the transformation of Ukraine into a federal state called the United States of Ukraine, divided into three sectors (western, central, eastern) with the Free City of Kyiv. The plan aimed to prevent armed conflict, protect civilians and ethnic minorities, mitigate potential humanitarian crises, and support economic development.

Kolonko's plan considered historical and ethnic contexts, aligning sectors with ethnic distributions: the western sector with historic Polish communities, the eastern sector with Russian minorities, and a neutral central buffer zone. It emphasized resolving the conflict through dialogue among Ukrainians, Russians, and Poles, without direct foreign military involvement.