Chelsea Clinton embraces the media and joins NBC

THE daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton embarks on a media career today, as she takes up the role of full-time special correspondent for NBC News. Chelsea Clinton, who says she will donate her earnings to charity, will apparently focus her efforts on producing stories about people who do volunteer work in the community for the 'Making a Difference' slot on the NBC Nightly News.

The news has been greeted with surprise in some quarters, given Clinton's relationship with the media. The New York Times, which broke the story, noted: "Clinton has been a national figure since her father won the presidency in 1992, but she has remained — first by her parents' request and then by her own choice — largely out of the public eye."

"This is an interesting career choice for Clinton who has spent much of her adult life stiff-arming the press," says David Lieberman of Deadline.com.

Ann Oldenburg, of USA Today agrees. She says the appointment is "pretty amazing, considering Chelsea has stayed out of the spotlight for years".

However, the 31-year-old President's daughter spoke at 400 town hall meetings in support of her mother as she chased the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008, and the NYT said she had been "raising her profile for some time".

In 2010 there was blanket media coverage of her marriage to Marc Mezvinsky in 2010, and last month there were rumours that she was planning to run for Congress in New York.

Clinton is not the first political daughter to join NBC. Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former President George W Bush, works as for NBC's Today show, and Meghan McCain, daughter of John McCain, contributes to MSNBC.

But Steve Capus, president of NBC News, insisted: "It's not about Chelsea Clinton saying, 'Here I am; I want to be a TV star.'" ·