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Chelsea Clinton Lands an NBC News Gig as Correspondent

Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by Stevie in Politics / Current Events

Chelsea Clinton will now be an occasional presence on the network's "Make a Difference" segments on NBC News (Photo by AP)

It truly pays to know people in high places.

Our primary example on this Monday is Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She landed a position with NBC News as a special correspondent effective today. She follows in the lead of another presidential daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, to make inroads at NBC.

Clinton will not be an NBC News anchor like, say, a Brian Williams. She will be doing special segments in their “Making a Difference” series that focus on people serving their communities through volunteer work. The franchise is already up and running and is popular, according to outside reports.

The idea to put the often-quiet Chelsea on national TV came from her work on her mother’s 2008 presidential campaign. She did hundreds of speaking engagements on behalf of Hillary and connected with voters who were making changes in their communities. Chelsea said that she appreciated those types of stories from her mother’s supporters.

I tip my hat to Chelsea for making boss moves at age 31 and fully capitalizing on her platinum-level Rolodex.In the same thought, however, I’m wondering about all of the trained journalists out there slaving away who can’t get an interview with NBC News. You can’t help but think that Chelsea’s name was slightly moved to the top of the résumé pile. From the NBC standpoint, her appointment makes perfect sense as someone with family name recognition.

However it worked out, Chelsea stands to make no profit from her news gig. She is donating her entire salary to the Clinton Foundation and George Washington University Hospital in a fund for her recently-deceased grandmother.

Tags: AP, Bill Clinton, Brian Williams, Chelsea Clinton, Clinton Foundation, George Washington University Hospital, Hillary Clinton, Jenna Bush Hager, Make a Difference, NBC News, president, Secretary of State