First is was Tim Russert’s son Luke, then it was George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna, and now it is Chelsea Clinton who will be working for NBC. Here’s a description of what she’ll be doing:
Ms. Clinton will show up at the news division offices on Monday morning, said Steve Capus, president of NBC News, and will begin work on stories that NBC expects to use as part of its “Making a Difference” series, which runs on “NBC Nightly News.”
…
“What we talked about was if she were to come on board that’s the kind of thing she would be interested in doing. We knew she wasn’t going to do the lead story. But having somebody who was going to do really captivating feature assignments for the ‘Making a Difference’ franchise really kind of synced up,” Mr. Capus said.
Those feature reports, which have become popular on NBC’s evening newscast — and which may be added to NBC’s new prime-time newsmagazine program, “Rock Center With Brian Williams” — spotlight people who are making volunteer commitments to improve the lives of others in their community.
Mr. Capus said Ms. Clinton had said to him, “That’s the kind of thing, if this were to happen, that I would really like to do.” He added, “It’s not about Chelsea Clinton saying, ‘Here I am; I want to be a TV star.’ ”
Okay, I think it’s a worthy news segment. By all means, go out and find ordinary Americans who are donating their time and energy to worthy causes and give them some props and maybe it will inspire some others to be better people. I am sure that there are countless broadcasting majors who could do this adequately. Chelsea Clinton, on the other hand, has a B.A. in History from Stanford, a M.Phil. in International Relations from University College, Oxford, a Master of Public Health degree at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and is working on a doctorate degree at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University. She’s a tad bit overqualified to be working full-time on bit segments for NBC News.
It’s not my place to tell her what to do, but I hope she isn’t committed to being a glorified Jenna Bush. As for NBC, they continue to hire the sons and daughters of the elite of the elite instead of hiring on hard work and merit. Luke Russert, Chelsea Clinton, and even Jenna Bush Hager are all accomplished people, but they wouldn’t have received their broadcasting jobs on merit alone. With people in the streets complaining about how the 1% are only looking out for themselves, NBC is badly off message.
I don’t know if Ms. Clinton is doing this to boost her profile for a future political career or if she’s doing it for a fat paycheck. It has nothing to do with history or international relations, and is only tangentially related to public health and public service.
If she is serious about a career in broadcasting, she probably should have studied broadcasting. And I’d rather see her cut her chops as a foreign corespondent, although security concerns probably make that impossible.
Above all, I’m tired of seeing NBC hand people plum jobs for who they are rather than what they’ve done.
