Mark Haines gets choked up

saying good-bye to his comrade-in-arms, Erin Burnett, headed to CNN.

I guess Mr. Grumpy Pants is actually a softie inside.  Best wishes to Erin; I hope you fare better than Katie, Campbell, Soledad ...

I agree with Mark:

You are the best.

Photo links here and here.

UPDATE: Jim Cramer struggles to keep it together. They all seem to really love her. A colleague and I were speculating that between Maria Bartiromo (the doyenne of the channel who would never give up her pole position) and the rising star that is Carl Quintinilla, then throwing in the fat free agent contract CNN was dangling, this was about as good of an exit that Burnett could structure. I will miss her, smarter than average and as minimally annoying as I could imagine. (Except for her occasional singing, usually as a segue to commercial break). Over the last 5 years, I've spent more than 3,500 hours with Erin, as CNBC broadcasts are what is on the television and the ol' hoot-n'-holler in my workplace.

UPDATE: Bill Griffeth takes the baton from Erin at 3pm, with gracious words for Erin. Noticeably (to me), no Maria Bartiromo on the handoff. And she has not acknowledged Burnett's departure in the first 13 minutes of her program.

UPDATE: Chris Ariens has the juice:

Any chance at moving to a high-profile anchor role at NBC seemed to go by the wayside as “Today” is poised to name Ann Curry the co-anchor, Natalie Morales news anchor and Savannah Guthrie national correspondent.