It was bound to happen at some point, but few probably expected the person to do it would be such a public figure. The notorious Zoom-dick incident took place last fall nonetheless, turning vaunted legal mind Jeffrey Toobin into a verb, and striking fear into the hearts of remote workers the world over.
After broadcasting his own onanism to a full gallery of colleagues at The New Yorker, Toobin was fired from the magazine and put on leave as an on-air correspondent for CNN. His was a flagrant violation of workplace standards, but Toobin had a minor league of defenders. Now, seven and a half months later, CNN has invited the disgraced correspondent back on air.
On Thursday, just above a chyron reading, “JEFFREY TOOBIN APOLOGIZES FOR ‘EMBARRASSINGLY STUPID MISTAKE,’” the author pleaded his case to the public. Although CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota was the only one who could actually respond to him at the time, many on Twitter did so remotely as well.
Glad CNN has brought back Zoom masturbator and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the only legal analyst out there.
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) June 10, 2021
Jeffrey Toobin is sorry for the zoom dick, and in related news my unemployed friends in journalism (who have never once masturbated in front of their colleagues!!) are still unemployed https://t.co/lV2KYhRvkL
— Leah Feiger (@LeahFeiger) June 10, 2021
Dear, @CNN not only is it gross to have disgraced Zoom masturbator Jeffrey Toobin BACK (and so soon!) as your legal analyst (don’t forget his sexual assault allegations that were ignored years ago https://t.co/uaLoe7z48A) you made a woman @AlisynCamerota talk to him about this? pic.twitter.com/HKaPJfDYNi
— JEN KIRKMAN (@JenKirkman) June 10, 2021
A lot of folks used Toobin’s apparent second chance as a rebuke to complaints about the excesses of cancel culture.