"Liberal" media strikes again: Jenna Bush is now employed by NBC

[Sebastian Doyle]

NEW YORK — NBC's "Today" show has hired someone with White House experience as a new correspondent — former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager.

Hager, a 27-year-old teacher in Baltimore, will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television's top-rated morning news show, said Jim Bell, its executive producer.

The daughter of former President George W. Bush said she has always wanted to be a teacher and a writer, and has already authored two books. But she was intrigued by the idea of getting into television when Bell contacted her.

"It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

She'll essentially work two part-time jobs as a correspondent and in her school, where she will be a reading coordinator this year.

Bell said he got the idea after seeing Hager in two "Today" appearances. She was on the program two years ago to promote her book about an HIV-infected single mother, "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," and it went so well that a short interview was stretched to nearly a half hour. She and her mother, Laura Bush, also co-hosted an hour of "Today" around the time their picture book came out.

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment/20090830/US.TV.Today.Bush/

[orpupilofnature57]

1. G.E. media

[orleans]

2. ugh. n/t

[AuntPatsy]

6. not stealing your word but "ugh" is so appropriate...

[NJCher]

3. ugh

Another reason to not watch TV.

Positions like this should go to journalists on their merit, not because of who they are related to. At best, her work experience is skimpy.

Cher

[Cleita]

4. Now we know for sure that they don't hire their

correspondents for their journalistic resume. To be fair I was never impressed by Maria Shriver either, another "journalist" who was hired because of her famous family.

[Kerrytravelers]

12. I agree. And as someone who went to J-School, this is just insulting.

There are plenty of reporters who could actually... report. What the hell is this???? I moved out of journalism. However, there are people I graduated with who are still in the field. And they have actual reporting experience.

There are three J-School that battle it out each year in the ranking between being rated the #1, #2 or #3 J-School in the country, and I went to one of those. There are people I graduated with who were damn good back then, and we graduated J-School in the late '90s. So, think of it like this... people who have gone to the top schools in the country for journalism are being knocked to the side for "reporters" or "personalities" like Jenna Bush, and, I agree, even Maria Shriver. I was never a Maria Shriver fan, and as a Californian, I certainly am no fan now.

[RockaFowler]

15. Count me in this, too Kerry

I went to Broadcasting School and I am having to work my way up at a local station. She's 27 and has never gone to school for this. She was aksed by someone at Today. Let me hurl now. I work for a NBC affiliate and this just infuriates me!!

[Kerrytravelers]

16. Yep. Nothing wrong with working your way up and paying your dues. But this is just... typical.

Haven't we had enough of the Bush Crime Family. We're still stuck with nephew Billy Bush on Access Hollywood. And if you ever go to Universal Studios Hollywood and take the tram tour... you're stuck listening to Billy Bush on-and-off for over an hour. Isn't that enough to keep the Bush Torture Program going without adding Little Miss Jenna, too????

[YOY]

17. It's the same problem with MBAs. We can go to a top school.

But unless you have the right connections you'll never get that dream job.

Q.E.D. I got better grades than this fuckhead:

[Kerrytravelers]

25. Blech! My eyes! My eyes! The evil is burning my eyes!!!!

[Deja Q]

19. Apart from Maria, I've never heard of the Shrivers.

Where did she come from, to get nepotism or any other form of special treatment?

[sandnsea]

23. Special Olympics, Head Start, the 1964 Poverty Program

They have done so much. Google Eunice and Sargent Shriver.

[Kerrytravelers]

27. They really have. They are such a wonderful family.

[cory817]

32. also

Also in case you didn't know, the Shrivers are married into the Kennedys. I think most of the people who replied to you assumed you knew that.

[Cleita]

35. Everyone in the business knew she was a Kennedy and for whatever

reason she was hired for a job that really was not entry level it was because of that. Maybe they thought she would have better access to the political scene in Washington which was miscalculation on their part because Maria herself said she wanted to do celebrity reporting. She hated politics.

[lunatica]

38. Her mother is Eunice Kennedy, Teddy's sister

who did her part in service. She created the Special Olympics which now seems quite ordinary. But when Eunice started fighting for the mentally and physically handicapped they were rarely seen because they were either institutionalized, kept at home behind closed doors or they couldn't get out because there were no handicapped access or user friendly sidewalks, entrances, placards, or parking spaces.

Sargent Shriver was her husband.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargent_Shriver

[YOY]

42. 1st Director of the Peace Corps

He means a lot to us.

That's one Sarge that I'll let give me orders.

[sandnsea]

20. Maria Shriver worked at KYW and WJZ

and CBS in LA before she went to the Morning News. She went to work at KYW in 1977, right out of college.

She's also a Peabody and Emmy winner, which they do not hand out for kicks and giggles.

You certainly don't have to like her, but she worked for what she got.

[Cleita]

33. Yes, I used to watch her on CBS in LA and she was awful.

There were local newspeople far more qualified to get what was Diane Sawyer's job at the time. Her interviews were so garbled she had some very prominent politicians absolutely confused. Whoever did the sports then (I forget who it was) used to make fun of her all the time because she was so awful and she never got it. She's really kind of dumb, but then marrying Arnold proves it. She never realized he married her for her family's political connections. I remember saying to my husband, I wonder how many qualified nobodies, who had done their time in the newsroom, got passed over because of her family ties. Yes, with time and experience she got better, but she didn't earn her early exposure any more than Jenna has. As for the Peabody and Emmys, she didn't do that alone. She had writers by that time who made sure that she didn't make the grammar booboos and valley girl speak that she did when she wrote her own material.

I don't dislike Maria. I actually feel sorry for her for what her buffoon husband has put her through, but she did not get her first plum news job because she earned it. I know. I was there watching every agonizing minute in the morning before I went to work.

[sandnsea]

36. Oh bullshit

You're a sick cynical old biddy.

[Cleita]

37. Thank you for the compliment.

Coming from you, it is a compliment because you can't stand it when I speak the truth.

[rvablue]

43. Yep, she paid her dues!

Eunice probably would have nixed the idea of her being plucked out of obscurity and put on the highest rated morning news show without having worked in the trenches for awhile.

[glowing]

5. Isn't that special. A bush to try and clean up the idiot's image.

Seriously, if any of the normal people in America woke up and decided they wanted to do something, it would take years and tons of work... and little respect once achieved because it was actual work and not inherited. The Bush woke up and said, "I'd like to be President" and its handed into his lap.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Here's a publicity shot she can add to her growing portfolio:

[Deja Q]

18. I thought that was the other one, Barbie...

What a disgraceful child, she is.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. No that's Jenna

Last I heard, Barbara was over in Africa trying to do something that appeared noble.

[stray cat]

8. A story once a month on education doesn't sound like much

[Kerrytravelers]

14. She'll just shill for some big textbook publisher under the guise of "strengthening education."

I'm in education now. All these new "innovated" programs are just fattening the pockets of the textbook publishers. Teachers get so much junk each year from these companies pushing this nonsense or that. Most of it is stuff that is here today, gone tomorrow.

I won't be watching her.

[Cha]

26. Isn't her uncle neil bush into some kind of

crap like that?

[Kerrytravelers]

29. Oh, that's right. He does publish text books.

Another wonderful thing for a Bush family member to fuck up. :eyes:

[bluestateguy]

9. And what experience does she have that would qualify her for a national network?

If she wants to go into journalism, fine, but why does she get to race to the top? How many other young journalists who have been slaving away for years on "Good Morning Omaha" were passed over for this job?

Having said that, I wish her well, and maybe she will see that her father's No Child Left Behind policy was complete nonsense.

[bertman]

10. "It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. Yep, a wordsmith.

Just like her dad.

[Motown_Johnny]

11. do we know her politics or are we judging her based on her father? Ronald Reagan Jr is also

employed by GE, or was at one point

[bluestateguy]

13. Good point

I suspect her politics are about where Megan McCain's are, but she is also very loyal to her father.

[Motown_Johnny]

22. I don't have a problem with Megan McCain. she can at least discuss a point rationally

I don't agree with her on anything (other than our opinion of Ann Coulter) but she isn't a nut job

[Kerrytravelers]

24. I am suffering from a serious case of Bushfatigue. The doctors say it will be a lifelong condition.

I really just want that entire family to go away. I don't care about her politics, her opinions are anything else she has to say. I'm just tired of any and all things that connect to George W. Bush, including his off-spring. They can't help who their parents are, but in this case, it seriously clouds my ability to listen to her and to take her seriously as anything other than a Spoiled Bush Brat, just like her idiot-father.

Perhaps that just makes me mean. So be it. I'm mean.

[Posteritatis]

40. Generally the latter, I think. (nt)

[Cha]

21. She and the today show mediawhores will get along

sickenly well.

[mnhtnbb]

30. I hope their ratings continue to suck--which is where they are now.

[LiberalAndProud]

31. The Today show? Wonderful.

It used to be a good morning news show, but those days have long passed. I mourn the passing. Now it is neither useful nor entertaining, and I don't waste my time with it.

[Taverner]

34. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded..."

"... and to be open-minded for change."

Call me overly optimistic, but the sins of the father do not translate to the child

[Posteritatis]

39. Pity that that's a minority opinion here. (nt)

[Jennicut]

44. I doubt the Bush kids are that conservative...but the not working to get to that level

is pretty bad. She is definitely getting the job because of her name only.

[lunatica]

41. This is how the rich keep the power in a few families

It's always been like this. They put their children in important jobs and keep all the power in the families. For all we know Jenna is getting the job because Bush has buddies in Skull and Bones who he's done favors for. Any and all the Bush offspring can get a job anywhere they want. They don't even have to do any work because their families will tell them what to do.

Anyone who thinks this isn't the way the world has been run since governments first started is really fooling themselves. This is the exact same practice that European royalty have been doing by marrying their other royal relatives. It's the idea behind the Illuminati story.

[bermudat]

45. I hope NBC isn't doing this to placate the haters at FNC that say NBC is biased.

Because it won't work. Nothing will placate them.

[Dramarama]

46. Ron Reagan is great, maybe she will too