Five months into her employment with NBC News, BuzzFeed looks at what Chelsea Clinton has brought to the network, and what she hasn’t. “So far, she’s only done three Making A Difference segments in five months,” writes Michael Hastings.

Almost everyone I spoke to for this story — from within NBC and at other networks as well — agree that that problem is that she won’t talk about the one thing that makes her undeniably compelling. How did it feel to be Chelsea Clinton during the Monica years? In the past, she’s responded angrily to that question. “It’s none of your business,” she told an audience after being questioned about it on the 2008 campaign trail.

That line doesn’t play anymore, now that she’s entered the family business of living in public. “What’s she giving us?” one NBC executive, who sees Chelsea regularly, asks. “There’s that wall that needs to be torn down. She sounds like a smart and intelligent woman, but there are lots of smart and intelligent women.”

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Heather Childers is the latest cable newser to find herself at the center of a social media firestorm.

The Fox News anchor tweeted links to several articles from Godfather Politics earlier this week that caused a stir, including one which questioned whether the Obama campaign had threatened Chelsea Clinton‘s life and one that said Obama “Channels Joseph Stalin, Attacks Supreme Court Justices.”

“The tweets have been addressed with Heather and she understands this was a mistake,” Fox News SVP Michael Clemente told Mediaite Tuesday.

After a flood of responses, Childers was quick to offer an apology. “Here’s the thing folks … that ONE topic sure got a lot of you tweeting,” she wrote. “Why? I apologize if the article offended anyone. Very interesting.” She has since protected her tweets.

Matt Lauer and Steve Capus at the NBC News/MSNBC upfront.

NBC Newsers always like to say they are part of one big family. But in a family that big, with several making millions of dollars a year — even a select few in the double-digit millions — there is bound to be sibling rivalry. And so it was on display Thursday as NBC News held an upfront presentation at the event space 583 Park Avenue. Matt Lauer tweaked Brian Williams for his run-on questions; Williams took a shot at Willie Geist: “I just found out he had a show;” who had fired first: “Brian is the caregiver for our parents and grandparents at 6:30 every night.”

Kidding aside, the event was all business: a gathering of sales teams, planners and agencies in an effort to get advertisers excited by what NBC News — the #1 news network — and MSNBC have to offer. At one point, Williams mentioned “the elephant in the room.” While some may have thought he was talking about his primetime newsmagazine’s ratings — “Rock Center” hit a new viewership low drawing just 2.6 million viewers Wednesday — the newsman-comedian was actually taking a jab Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford.

“Hods and Kathie Lee are just baked. Permanently hammered,” said Williams of the fourth hour “Today” team. He referred to Ed Schultz as “a big bowl of humanity. His head alone is bigger than my first apartment in New York.” And after Al Roker revealed he and Williams “spooned” in a tent

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It looks like NBC and Chelsea Clinton will extend their deal. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple and New York Times‘ Amy Chozik both reporting the news with Chozik writing Clinton “will extend her three-month contract” with Wemple adding his sources “wouldn’t comment on how long the new agreement will extend the rookie correspondent.”

Clinton joined NBC News late last year as a contributor to “Nightly News” and “Rock Center.”

An extended deal will take her closer, if not beyond, the presidential election. As she would need to adhere to NBC News standards, this means the former first daughter won’t be able to fund-raise or formally campaign for the Obama re-election team.

Even though she’s been in the public eye for almost 20 years, tonight, at approximately 6:55pmET, most Americans had the chance to hear Chelsea Clinton for the first time. The daughter of a former President of the United States and a sitting Secretary of State, famous for not being famous, Clinton began her stint tonight as a special correspondent for NBC News. On the “Nightly News” set with Brian Williams, Clinton wrapped a cut-down version of a longer “Making a Difference” report that will air tonight on “Rock Center.” If you’d tuned in as the story was airing you might think a seasoned journalist was delivering the report — her questions were direct, the writing was succinct, her voice has a built-in broadcast quality (or she’s taken a crash course in Broadcast Diction 101) but the cutaways of Clinton made a difference in this report. This was not some reporter brought up from the NBC farm team in Miami or Chicago.

Clinton’s hire as a special correspondent has faced criticism from those whose life’s work is media criticism. NBC News president Steve Capus signed Clinton to a three-month contract to see how this all plays out.

“It helps to tell their stories which I know is why you’re here, and we have months yet to talk about all kinds of things,” said Williams. “We’re so happy to have you here.”

See Clinton’s report after the jump…

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At the close of Friday’s “Nightly News,” and again during his tease on “Today,” Brian Williams announced two new members of the NBC News on-air team would be joining him on the show tonight ahead of their stories on tonight’s “Rock Center.”

We’ll look for you right back here Monday night when we’ll be joined by Ted Koppel and Chelsea Clinton prior to their reports “Rock Center.”

On Friday, Clinton wrote a blog post about her story:

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Newly hired NBC News contributing correspondent Chelsea Clinton is profiled on page one of the Sunday Styles section of  The New York Times. Clinton will make her first appearance on NBC News on “Rock Center” Monday, Dec. 12 “with a segment she developed about a nonprofit organization in Pine Bluff, Ark.”

But what happens when Clinton starts to use her clout and famous last name to campaign for Pres. Barack Obama next year. NYT’s Amy Chozick writes:

As President Obama’s re-election campaign heats up, Ms. Clinton will most likely need to step back from news gathering to help raise money. An adviser said she would “100 percent” help him with his campaign. [NBC News president Steve] Capus said NBC News would discuss in advance any of Ms. Clinton’s political activity, as it does with all of its contributors. Ms. Clinton has a three-month trial contract with NBC, after which both parties will decide whether to continue.

(Image: Serge Bloch)

In the December 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Tyndall looks at NBC News’ recent hiring of Chelsea Clinton. Tyndall argues that the hiring is an effort from NBC to obtain insider access, without the baggage that comes from hiring a former political insider. As the daughter of a political family, Clinton knows politics, but would not be burdened with having an obvious agenda.

He also argues that the hire, while it might make sense on some level, risks making NBC look bad from the standpoint of some viewers:

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On CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday, host Howard Kurtz and his media panel of Marisa Guthrie, Eric Deggans and David Zurawik discussed NBC News’ hiring of former first-daughter Chelsea Clinton as a contributor.

Mediabistro.com is partnering up with Poll Position, the new polling company founded by former CNN executive Eason Jordan. On occasion, TVNewser and our other blogs will share results from Poll Position polls having to do with news media consumption and coverage. Each Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, Poll Position conducts national telephone polling, asking more than 1,000 Americans 10 hot topic questions in addition to demographic questions – gender, race, age, political affiliation. Among the Poll Position questions this week was the following:

NBC News has hired the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, as a special correspondent to report stories about ordinary Americans who do extraordinary things. Will NBC’s hiring of Chelsea Clinton make you more or less inclined to watch NBC News programs?

More Inclined	Less Inclined	Makes No Difference	N/O
24.4%	28.5%	45.1%	2.0%

National Telephone Poll of 1,170 Registered Voters / 11.15.11 / Margin of Error +/- 3%

For a significant plurality of people, Clinton’s hiring doesn’t seem to have an impact on whether they will tune in or not. When broken down into specific demographics, Clinton’s hiring did have a slight impact however:

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