CNN analyst and New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin is being slated online for masturbating during a Zoom call with colleagues. As #MeToobin trends on Twitter, Toobin enters the pantless pantheon of public figures caught in the act.
Jeffrey Toobin has been suspended from his job at the New Yorker magazine and been given leave from CNN, after exposing his genitals on a Zoom call with co-workers. According to Vice News, which broke the story on Monday, “Toobin was masturbating” during the teleconference, with his fellow journos saying they saw him “jerking off.”
“I thought I had muted the Zoom video,” the liberal pundit said in his defense, calling his work-call whack-off an “embarrassingly stupid mistake.” During the call, the tone could hardly be described as sexual. Participants were running a simulation of next month’s presidential election, with Toobin playing the role of the courts.
A day later, Toobin was still being roasted on Twitter. Under the hashtag #MeToobin, some commentators slammed his “creepy” behavior as textbook sexual harassment, while others joked at the naked New Yorker’s expense.
This thread is spot-on….#Toobin was masturbating during a work meeting. It would be sexual harassment if he’d done it at the office. Instead, he did it in a Zoom meeting.Guess what? It’s STILL sexual harassment.Enough excusing creepy white men.#MeToobinhttps://t.co/X8drqsjwpY
Dear Men,It is the easiest thing in the world to keep your junk in your pants. There are a series of avoidable bad decisions before you end up with your dick out on zoom. Should you make bad choices, don’t complain when you are held accountable. Don’t be a #MeToobin
Don’t worry, he won’t be gone for shlong https://t.co/elDuI6r58q
CNN: “No, Mr. Toobin, sir, we hired you to be a master DEBATOR.”
Even former NFL star and convicted felon OJ Simpson joined in. “Damn Jeffrey Toobin,” he said in a video posted to Twitter. “At least Pee Wee Herman was in an X-rated movie theater,” referring to comedian Paul Reubens’ widely-publicized arrest for masturbating in an adult cinema in 1991.
Damn @JeffreyToobinpic.twitter.com/ZkS1gFsyyi
Toobin is not a stranger to Simpson, and his account of the troubled running back’s murder trial, ‘The Run of his Life’ was adapted for television as the FX series ‘American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson’ in 2016.
Nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, the ways we work and interact with each other have changed. Zoom calls have replaced boardroom meetings, classrooms have gone virtual, and lockdowns have made dating an online game. What hasn’t changed, apparently, are the perverted pastimes of some of our public figures.
Just last month, an Argentinian MP resigned after he was caught sucking on a young woman’s breast during a virtual session of parliament. Several weeks beforehand, a government official in the Philippines was caught having sex with his secretary during a conference call. When he realized he had been seen, the official ducked out of the frame, put his trousers back on, and attempted to play off the incident. His colleagues were having none of it, and the official was soon booted from his job.
In Spain in April, journalist Alfonso Merlos landed himself in hot water when a bare-naked woman strolled into view as Merlos appeared live on a political YouTube show. Merlos’ jilted girlfriend called the incident “shameful,” and the Spanish media pounced on the titillating tale.
Unlike these unmuted miscreants, Toobin wasn’t caught with a partner, but alone in front of his computer screen. As the controversy swirled, some commentators wondered whether the disgraced journalist was pleasuring himself to something on another tab, or worse again, to his colleagues’ video feeds.
Masturbating while on a work zoom/call is a choice. If Toobin was on mute he was listening/watching the other participants and that’s still disgusting & violating. If the urge is so great end the call. He knew that. Always a good time to re up this https://t.co/7NJxI7nqEl
when I first heard about the masturbation guy I thought it was a Louis CK type situation but I just read this thing that seemed like it was a humiliating accident and he didn’t know he was on camera? I feel bad for the people who saw that but him too
Politicians have landed themselves in trouble for less than Toobin too. Earlier this month, a British council official apologized after calling the mayor of Allerdale district a “daft cow,” evidently forgetting to press the mute button first. The councillor panicked when he realized his mistake, before asking the mayor to accept his apology.
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