NBC Blocked Chelsea Clinton's Marriage Equality Ad

Increasingly worried about the blurry lines between stoic, non-partisan NBC News and their liberal, definitely partisan cousin MSNBC, executives at the peacock network have been trying to clearly delineate the two sides, and it appears they want to keep special correspondent Chelsea Clinton in the neutral camp.

BuzzFeed reports that executives behind-the-scenes put the kibosh on a pro-gay marriage ad in which Clinton starred:

NBC News blocked backers of a key marriage equality measure in Washington State from using a video featuring Chelsea Clinton urging voters to support a state-wide referendum on gay marriage, BuzzFeed has learned.

Clinton, a vocal proponent of marriage equality, cut the video for a group supporting the Washington state measure, as well as a second video for another group. But NBC, for which Clinton works as a "special correspondent" since last November, "scuttled" the campaign, sources familiar with the ads said.

...

In the video, a third source said that Clinton described her belief that everyone should have the freedom to marry, detailed the importance of the upcoming votes, and stated that success in the states voting on marriage would send a message to rest of the country.

NBC did not respond to the story before it went to virtual press. As for Clinton, she'll soon have to decide whether she wants to continue pursuing journalistic endeavors, endeavors which were coolly received, and what would most likely be a vibrant career in the political sector.

Joe Biden To Appear On Next Week's 'Parks And Recreation'

A few months ago, far before his job was secure, Vice President Joe Biden filmed a hush-hush cameo for NBC's politically-minded sitcom Parks and Recreation. That cameo will air next week, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Politicos like Sen. John McCain and retired Sen. Olympia Snowe have appeared on the show, but executive producer Michael Schur says Biden's the biggest get yet:

[Leslie Knope] has a lot of social figures that she considers heroes, but the funniest hero is Joe Biden. There’s an episode last season where she says, 'Joe Biden is on my celebrity sex list — well, he is my celebrity sex list'… It was amazing to have her meet Olympia Snowe and Barbara Boxer because that meant something to her politically. But this transcends that.

She’s meeting the man that she’s in love with on some deep level. It was a bigger deal to us in some ways that she meet Joe Biden than it was that she meet Barack Obama.

The scene also apparently would have also worked had Biden and President Obama lost on Tuesday. "We treated it in the writing and the execution like our main character was meeting her hero," said Schur.

[Image via EW]

Chelsea Clinton to Report for NBC News, Starting Immediately

Chelsea Clinton is now a full-time correspondent for NBC News, the NYT reports:

The appointment is immediate. Ms. Clinton will show up at the news division offices on Monday morning, said Steve Capus, president of NBC News, and will begin work on stories that NBC expects to use as part of its “Making a Difference” series, which runs on “NBC Nightly News.”...

...Those feature reports, which have become popular on NBC’s evening newscast — and which may be added to NBC’s new prime-time newsmagazine program, “Rock Center With Brian Williams” — spotlight people who are making volunteer commitments to improve the lives of others in their community.

There were reports in recent months that Clinton was "actively considering" a run for a Congressional seat from the state of New York. Clinton denied them.