TVNewser is reporting that two more high-profile members of the CNN staff have been handed their walking papers -- and to be honest, I have mixed emotions about this one.
On the one hand, it would seem to once again prove what I've been saying for the past few weeks -- what came to a head last Wednesday with the layoffs that sent Miles O'Brien and the entire CNN Science and Technology Unit packing: Contrary to the horseshit being shoveled by Jon "Diddy" Klein, the economy is having a serious effect on CNN. Add to that the fact that one of the two staffers who's been let go is the talented and gorgeous Jennifer Eccleston -- CNN's international correspondent based in Rome -- and you'd think it would be tough to find a silver lining in all of this.
Except that there sort of is one -- in the form of an object lesson.
That's because the second CNN staffer being laid-off is American Morning's living-doll internet correspondent, Veronica De La Cruz. To put a very fine point on it, De La Cruz never should've been hired in the first place; she's little more than a pretty face (unlike Eccleston who has brains to go with her looks) and represents the furthest thing from what CNN purports to be about. Klein probably knew almost right off that bat that he'd made a mistake by hiring her so he bounced her around from place to place and buttressed her with smart producers -- Alex Walker, who was let go last week, being one of them -- likely hoping that she would catch up and become more than just a walking head shot. She never did, apparently -- so Klein finally gave up and pulled the plug.
The thing is, he could've had someone better all along.
Guess who he let go of just a year-and-a-half ago to make room for brand new internet correspondent Veronica De La Cruz?
Jacki Schechner.
(Yes, you can read Jacki's quick, hilarious and self-confessed "immature" take on the whole thing here.)
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