Meritocracy, American Style

Everybody who makes a lot of money or enjoys great wealth worked very hard to get that - everybody knows that.

Take the example of Chelsea Clinton, for example:

Chelsea Clinton earned an annual salary of $600,000 at NBC News before switching to a month-to-month contract earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the agreement told POLITICO.

Clinton, who joined NBC News as a special correspondent in November 2011, was up for renewal or nonrenewal this year. Instead, the sources said, the network decided to keep her on the payroll on a month-to-month basis so the two parties could sever ties if Clinton’s mother, Hillary Clinton, runs for president.

...

When Clinton joined NBC, many media critics chafed at the network’s decision to employ a former first daughter with no experience in journalism. The New York Post referred to Clinton as “just another spoiled, aimless child of rich, successful parents chauffeured through adulthood by Mommy and Daddy’s connections.”

Yet Clinton’s appointment did not mark the first time NBC Universal had hired children of high-ranking politicians. In 2009, it hired George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush Hager to serve as a correspondent on the “Today” show. In 2011, it hired Sen. John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain as a contributor on MSNBC.

According the Daily News, Clinton is considered "demanding" and not very talented as a journalist by her fellow NBC journalists.

Though the network said she was “warmly welcomed” to headquarters at Rock Center, others described Clinton as demanding and underwhelming in her journalistic chops.

“There were ground rules, what she could and couldn’t report, only good news, no politics,” one NBC insider told BuzzFeed in 2012 about the process of bring her onboard.

I wonder how many stories she did for $600,000?

Nice work if you can get it.

But you can't.

Unless your Chelsea Clinton, Jenna Bush or Megan McCain.

While I'm sure Luke Russert isn't making anywhere near what the above three are from NBC, there's another fine example of “just another spoiled, aimless child of rich, successful parents chauffeured through adulthood by Mommy and Daddy’s connections.”

Meritocracy, American-style.