It's Not What You Know, It's Who...

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

NBC announced this weekend that they have hired Jenna Bush Hager, one of George W's twin daughters,to do news stories for the Today Show. Apparently the 27-year-old school teacher from Baltimore will do one or two news stories a month, most probably with a focus on education.

And why not? She's young, attractive, and supposedly can string sentences together in a coherent manner - a skill that continuously evaded her father. Of course, Ms. Bush Hager didn't go to journalism school and has nothing that distinguishes her from more than one million other American teachers, many of whom have been working in the field far longer and have a broader understanding of the challenges and issues facing education in this day of shrinking state budgets.

But I say good for Jenna. She reportedly did not go begging for this prestigious gig, but was approached by NBC. Officials with the network were almost too quick to point out that this job was not offered with the prospect of lining up a future interview with her father. The network also said that she will not be doing any political stories - at least for the time being.

Jenna is not the first political child to swing into the limelight on daddy's coattails. Margaret Truman launched a singing career from the White House, and years later used her famous name to get started as a mystery writer. Elliott Roosevelt took a page from Margaret Truman Daniel and wrote a series of mysteries in which his First Lady mother, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the detective. Fun stuff all - except possibly for Margaret's singing!

When Elvis died in 1977, Rolling Stone dispatched a singularly unqualified 19-year-old Caroline Kennedy to Memphis to cover the funeral - and she issued a very professional account of the event. Caroline's cousin, Maria Shriver, took a slower and more professional approach to becoming a journalist. She earned her chops in the broadcast news business by beginning at a local television station in Philadelphia, and then worked her way through the system and eventually became a national correspondent for NBC.

Jenna, do your best and enjoy the privileges that life has heaped upon you. Hiring you was a corporate decision by nameless men and women in business suits who know what is good for America. Don't give a second thought to all of the qualified and talented journalism students who can't find work, or all of the experienced teachers who have a much broader and deeper understanding of education in America than you could possibly comprehend with your rarefied background. It's not your fault that you got a job that should have, by rights, gone to any one of the other thousands of better qualified candidates.

Your new job at NBC speaks well for you - and it says volumes about NBC!