NBC blocked campaign ads by Chelsea Clinton

BuzzFeed broke this story late Wednesday night, so it hasn’t received much coverage …

BuzzFeed reports that NBC News blocked a campaign ad made by Chelsea Clinton backing gay marriage and in particular urging voter support for the statewide referendum that was on the Washington State ballot.

Clinton, who works for NBC as a “special correspondent” covering feature stories, is a vocal proponent of marriage equality. According to Buzzfeed, the former First Daughter cut the video for a group supporting the Washington state marriage equality measure, as well as a second video for another group, TheFour.com. But NBC "scuttled" the campaign, sources familiar with the ads said.
The videos were apparently intended to be used as web ads, not commercials for broadcast TV.

Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed writes that, in the weeks before the November elections -- where voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington voted on same-sex marriage rights -- such prominent support for those ballot measures would have been heavily sought. Clinton had supported efforts toward the legislative passage of marriage equality in New York, participating in a phone-banking effort in Manhattan before the legislature approved the bill in June 2011.

The BuzzFeed report offers this: Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter “is thought by many in the Clinton circle to be eyeing a political future, and her public support for marriage (equality) was an early step in that direction. Her role at NBC News -- where she focused on good-news stories, and avoids politics -- also appears to be a step in the direction of public life.