Chelsea Clinton's hefty NBC paycheck raises eyebrows; no appearance on NBC for 4 months
NEW YORK | Chelsea Clinton — under scrutiny for her pricey contract with NBC News — hasn't been featured since January, but the network says it does expect two completed stories to air soon, and two others are in the works.
Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter, who was hired in 2011, has done just a smattering of reporting for NBC News. Last week, Politico reported she is being paid $600,000 a year. Politico also said the 34-year-old, who is expecting her first child later this year, is now on a month-to-month contract that would ease her departure should her mother decide to run for president in 2016.
The news division would not go into detail about Clinton's contract or her work when contacted by The Associated Press. A Clinton spokesman, Kamyl Bazbaz, referred questions to NBC.
NBC News has aired two stories by Chelsea Clinton so far in 2014, both on education programs targeting the underprivileged that were shown on "Nightly News" in January. NBC indicated, however, that Clinton has done two stories that are expected to air on "Nightly News" shortly and two others for which filming has been scheduled. Clinton is also busier with outside work, reportedly taking a more active role in her parents' foundation, and NBC wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict by having her on the air around the time Hillary Clinton was doing a round of media interviews about her new book.
Clinton began work at the network in November 2011. She was the second presidential daughter to get work at NBC; Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W. Bush, is a "Today" show correspondent. Besides "Nightly News," Clinton was hired to do stories for Brian Williams' "Rock Center" newsmagazine, which has since been canceled.
Clinton profiled designer Stella McCartney and author Judy Blume for "Rock Center" and also did a cringeworthy voiceover "interview" with the Geico gecko. Much of her work falls under the umbrella of NBC's "Making a Difference" stories, about various efforts to make communities better.
She's done stories on the Maya Angelou Academy, a school program for jailed teenagers; a restaurant chain that donates leftover food to the needy; a Rhode Island school program where teachers at public and charter schools swap ideas; and an Arkansas tutoring program.
Her "Nightly News" stories this year were about a "homework diner" in New Mexico that feeds free meals to schoolchildren and their families, and a boxing gym in Detroit where youngsters must prove they've done their schoolwork to put on the gloves.
"She has a niche on the 'Nightly News' profiling philanthropic, volunteer and community service programs, often in praise of these groups," news consultant Andrew Tyndall, who monitors the content of network evening news programs, said Wednesday. "She puts herself in the center of these groups' activities. It's a cheerleader style of reporting."
Bush's daughter seems genuinely interested in being a television journalist, while that doesn't appear to be the case with Clinton, Tyndall said.
Bush Hager interviewed President Barack Obama about fatherhood for a "Today" story that aired earlier this month, and Michelle Obama this winter about the first lady's healthy living initiatives. She's also interviewed Jordin Sparks and reported on school curriculum efforts recently.
For a news division, an unspoken advantage to having a presidential relative on the payroll might be help in getting access to their famous family in newsworthy situations. George W. Bush gave his first television interview since leaving the White House to the "Today" show's Matt Lauer in 2010. Hager Bush also interviewed her father about his paintings for "Today" in April.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's first television interview on her new book went to Diane Sawyer of ABC News.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2014-06-19/story/chelsea-clintons-hefty-nbc-paycheck-raises-eyebrows-hasnt-been-nbc-4#cxrecs_s#ixzz357J90Slu
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2014-06-19/story/chelsea-clintons-hefty-nbc-paycheck-raises-eyebrows-hasnt-been-nbc-4#cxrecs_s#ixzz357Is2urK
http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2014-06-19/story/chelsea-clintons-hefty-nbc-paycheck-raises-eyebrows-hasnt-been-nbc-4#cxrecs_s
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Legitimate journalism or inappropriate activity?
In all fairness, Jenna Bush was hired by the Today Show. I thought I heard somewhere that she was getting $200k annually. Not as good as Chelsea but still not bad. Here is an article from that time:
Jenna Bush Hager, affirmative action hire
7:37 am September 1, 2009, by Jay
Jenna Bush Hager, a schoolteacher in Baltimore and yes, daughter of former President Bush, picked up a new parttime gig yesterday when it was announced that she would file occasional stories for NBC's "Today" show out of its Washington studio.
I don't mean to pick on Jenna; she's done nothing wrong. She has a famous name and a semi-famous face, and in a celebrity culture like our own, that makes her qualified enough. She'll draw eyeballs, which makes her no less deserving and probably more so than many. But her new high-profile job, and the quick ascent of others similarly situated, do serve as reminders of just how institutionalized such advantages really are.
As Glenn Greenwald of Salon put it:
They should convene a panel for the next "Meet the Press" with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it's really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from. There's a virtually endless list of politically well-placed guests equally qualified to talk on such matters.
It's not just politics and media, of course. The pattern holds in every field of human endeavor, and always has and always will. And as Greenwald goes on to note:
"... all of the above-listed people are examples of America's Great Meritocracy, having achieved what they have solely on the basis of their talent, skill and hard work — The American Way. By contrast, Sonia Sotomayor — who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in Bronx housing projects; whose father had a third-grade education, did not speak English and died when she was 9; whose mother worked as a telephone operator and a nurse; and who then became valedictorian of her high school, summa cum laude at Princeton, a graduate of Yale Law School, and ultimately a Supreme Court Justice — is someone who had a whole litany of unfair advantages handed to her and is the poster child for un-American, merit-less advancement."
The form of affirmative action that landed Jenna Bush on the "Today" show is accepted and understood and so ingrained in how we think that it is utterly noncontroversial, except by comparison with the Sotomayor approach. And isn't it interesting how nobody is wringing their hands, worried that poor Jenna is going to have to deal with the psychological damage of knowing that she didn't get the "Today" gig all on her own.
Quote from: NotNow on June 19, 2014, 06:17:43 PM
They should convene a panel for the next "Meet the Press" with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it's really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from.
Hilarious! ;D
not what you know, it's who you know.