CNN.com reporter Lisa Desjardins took the opportunity of her departure from the company to put in a few parting words to the network in a three-minute viral clip. Despite some gracious goodbye sentiments in the video, she makes a subtle point by thanking CNN while stocking up on provisions from the supply cabinet. When her shoulder bag is filled up with notepads and pencils, she wonders aloud if there are any more tote bags.
Desjardins filmed the piece as a tongue-in-cheek piece of journalism, speaking personally about her time with CNN and offering up gratitude to colleagues. She intersects those statements with some general tidbits about the CNN downsizing. As Variety reported, Desjardins compared the mass goodbye emails sent by laid off employees — generally courteous in nature, using words such as “thank” and “incredible” — to the personal emails she herself received from people on their way out the door.
“Turns out we’re not so nice, thank God,” Desjardins says in the clip. In the “word cloud” of departure emails sent only to Desjardins, there contained the word “sucks,” and phrases such as “I licked all the eighth floor coffee cups.”
The Hollywood Reporter states that 600 CNN employees are affected by a staffing reduction initiative. Time Warner owns Turner Broadcasting, which oversees CNN. Turner is going first the route of voluntary buyouts before issuing formal layoff notices, according to Variety . CNN President Jeff Zucker told employees:
“We now have a sense of what Turner is expecting from CNN. I am working with the senior management team at CNN to figure out what this means for us. This will result in changes and what we do and what we stop doing.”
Desjardins took the high road in her goodbye clip, expressing regret that CNN is, by her account, cutting back on Congressional coverage. To emphasize that politicians need a watchdog, Desjardins said:
“I’m concerned that Members of Congress could put the entire text of ’50 Shades of Gray’ into a bill and no one but maybe me, Jamie Dupree of Cox Radio and a few lobbyists would ever notice.”
Her final goodbye message, again overridden with explicit thanks to CNN, was simply stated: “Thank you for some incredible years — and also for making sure that I was, in fact, part of the Great Recession.”
According to her official CNN biography, Lisa Desjardins previously worked for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, she was a reporter at a CNN affiliate in South Carolina. Desjardins spent two years in Russia and speaks the language fluently.
[Image: Lisa Desjardins]