Jenna Bush Hager’s ‘Today’ job

Former First Daughter Jenna Bush Hager is trying her hand as an NBC news correspondent, said Becca Milfeld in Politico, following “in the tradition of Meghan McCain, Liz Cheney, and other daughters of prominent Republicans who’ve waded into the media waters.” Hager will keep her part-time teaching job at a Baltimore charter school, contributing a story a month to NBC’s “Today” show on topics such as education.

If we’re so into "royal and aristocratic families,” said Glenn Greenwald in Salon, we should just openly declare it. Or we could have Jenna, Meghan, and Liz sit on a panel with Luke Russert and Jonah Golberg, moderated by Mike Wallace’s son Chris Wallace, to “bash affirmative action” and praise our “Great Meritocracy.” Seriously, with every media outlet “firing and laying off real reporters,” this is NBC’s idea of a good hire?

Give Jenna Bush Hager some credit, said Colby Hall in Mediaite. She’s “already accomplished a fair amount” for a 27-year-old, having published two books, and she’s certainly “self-assured on camera,” as “Today” executive producer Jim Bell noted in explaining why he asked her to join the show. And she certainly knows something about being under scrutiny. (watch Jenna Bush on “Ellen”)

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Still, NBC and anyone named Bush? said Shannon Bell in Right Pundits. Talk about a “curious tale of strange bedfellows.” Bell says the one topic Hager won’t cover is politics, so she probably has some “conservative tendencies”—if she were “a flaming liberal like Ron Reagan they’d have her out touting Obama policies and such.”