Chelsea Clinton declined to speak to anyone in the media after NBC announced she was joining as a special correspondent for its news division, reports James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times.

Her appointment was greeted with "more than a little carping and some outright disdain" from professional journalists and Washington observers, although the public appears to be taking a more patient attitude to her new job, the story says.

"Chelsea Clinton has loathed the news media for most of her life," Don Van Natta, a New York Times reporter, wrote via Twitter. "So it makes sense she has decided to join us and refuse to be interviewed," according to the piece.

Other journalists said the move smacked of a "gimmick," with Judy Muller, a former ABC correspondent, saying it would be hard to tell her students at USC’s Annenberg School for Journalism that sometimes it takes more than drive and diligence to reach national television, the story says.