Last year, NBC News hired Chelsea Clinton to "report" on things for them, because here in America, major news networks are purely in the entertainment business and the privileges of dynastic nepotism will get you everywhere. That is why she was hired. Because of who her parents are. It has nothing to do with her abilities, or the concept of "journalism." I'm sure she's nice and smart and all. But that is not why she was hired by NBC News. Okay? Now. How is that going?

Her debut was boring, her subsequent work has been boring, just as she planned, and now, to the shock and all of all, NBC executives are getting tired of her, according to a fine Buzzfeed story by Michael Hastings. The problem, you see, is this: she is not a journalist, and she doesn't cover "news," she only covers boring vapid fluff, but she won't talk about herself or her family, and if she doesn't do any good journalism and she also doesn't offer any good gossip, she offers nothing of value. If you think that she did not "sign on for that kind of self-centered non-journalism," you are wildly mistaken. And therefore she is boring on television, and people don't want to watch her, so whatever, no great tragedy. The point here is that sure, Chelsea Clinton may well be a very nice person and all and [INSERT EVERY DISCLAIMER ABOUT EDUCATION, PUPPIES, RAINBOWS, ETC.] but the very fact that she got this job on NBC "News" is a grotesque symbol of how nepotistic and celebrity-worshiping the ostensibly populist U.S. "journalism" establishment has become (assuming it was ever any better).

How is that "afflicting the comfortable" thing going, NBC "News?"

Anyhow maybe Chelsea Clinton will be quietly eased out of NBC soon, who knows, but it would be nice if they and the other news networks were to then embark upon an ambitious decades-long meritocratic program of hiring a diverse force of actual journalists. We're not counting on it, though.

[Photo: AP]