Whatever respect people had for CNN was obliterated by the Toobin masturbation incident. Toobin masturbating is representative of what CNN does to its viewers.
Zoom masturbation incident
On October 19, 2020, during the first year of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Toobin was suspended from
The New Yorker after he
masturbated on camera during a
Zoom video call between
New Yorker and
WNYC radio staffers.
[5][6][7][8][9] CNN said Toobin "has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted". Toobin said in a statement: "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers."
[25] In November 2020, he was fired from
The New Yorker, following an internal investigation by the parent organization,
Condé Nast.
[26] New York Public Radio, which owns WNYC, indefinitely banned Toobin from its broadcasts and podcasts.
[5]
Toobin was widely ridiculed in the wake of the incident by, among others,
O. J. Simpson,
Jimmy Fallon,
Bill Maher,
Donald Trump Jr., and performers on
Saturday Night Live.
[27] Irene Katz Connelly pointed out the parallels between him positioning perpetrators of sex scandals as victims in his writing with his response to the zoom incident.
[28] Defenders included
Tina Brown, a former
New Yorker editor, who said that "27 years of superb reporting and commitment to
The New Yorker should have been weighed against an incident that horribly embarrassed the magazine but mostly embarrassed himself." Canadian author and journalist
Malcolm Gladwell said he "read the Condé Nast news release, and I was puzzled because I couldn't find any intellectual justification for what they were doing."
[5]
On June 10, 2021, Toobin returned to CNN as its chief legal analyst. He described his conduct as "deeply moronic and indefensible" and said he "didn't think other people could see [him]", but admitted that this was no defense for his behavior. He said the time he spent off air went toward "trying to be a better person", working on his upcoming book about the
Oklahoma City bombing, going to therapy, and working at a
food bank.
[29]