New Delhi: Jeffrey Toobin, a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker and a senior legal analyst for CNN, confirmed Thursday that he had been fired from the magazine after accidentally exposing himself to his colleagues during a Zoom video call in October.
“I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work,” he wrote in a tweet.
I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work.
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) November 11, 2020
In a recent statement, Stan Duncan, Chief People Officer of Conde Naste, the magazine’s parent company, said that after an internal investigation, Toobin was “no longer affiliated with our company”.
The 60-year-old writer, also a former associate counsel in the US Department of Justice, had been on suspension up until this point and was also on a leave of absence from CNN.
“I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera…I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video,” Toobin had told Vice News last month following his suspension.
Vice News had also quoted two anonymous sources who claimed they saw Toobin masturbating.
A Harvard alumna, Toobin is also the author of bestsellers like ‘True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump’ published in August this year and ‘The Run of His Life: The People v OJ Simpson’ published in 1996 which was adapted into a web series.
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Mixed reactions from fellow journalists
There were mixed reactions to Toobin’s firing on social media.
Managing Editor of the blog site News Busters, Curtis Houck, remarked, “Your turn, CNN” in a tweet Thursday.
Your move, CNN: New Yorker fires Jeffrey Toobin for exposing himself on Zoom https://t.co/jJHAp1FgGn
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 12, 2020
However, journalist and former senior editor of the Newsweek magazine Jonathan Alter defended Toobin saying he “did nothing here to hurt anyone outside yourself and your family”.
I am so sorry to hear this news, @JeffreyToobin. You are a fine person and a terrific journalist and did nothing here to hurt anyone outside yourself and your family. I look forward to seeing your work elsewhere before too long. https://t.co/MTKcjUldpd
— Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) November 12, 2020
Ryan Grim, the Washington DC bureau chief for The Intercept, agreed that Toobin “was in his own home, and mistakenly thought he had privacy.”
He was in his own home, and mistakenly thought he had privacy.
If he had gone to piss, nobody would be calling for him to be fired, but you’re not supposed to piss during a work call either.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 11, 2020
But Kenyan poet Shailja Patel criticised the men defending Toobin, in a five-part thread, with their “himpathy” — an amalgamation of “him” and “sympathy”.
For anyone wondering why a man who can't get through a work meeting without masturbating, and who has apparently failed to grasp the basics of internet privacy, is being mourned as a great loss to political journalism, @millicentsomer explains.#Toobinhttps://t.co/IEQwbxVVgu
— Shailja Patel (@shailjapatel) November 12, 2020
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