Oh dear. It finally happened. A famous man on a Zoom call "took it out," as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character Elaine once put it so succinctly on "Seinfeld."
According to Vice, which broke the story, Jeffrey Toobin was apparently engaged in an act of self-gratification as his colleagues looked on, one imagines, in horror.
What was Toobin thinking?
The 60-year-old New Yorker writer and CNN legal analyst apologized to his family, friends and colleagues for being caught with his pants down during a Zoom call about potential election outcomes with other New Yorker luminaries, including Jane Mayer, Evan Osnos and Jelani Cobb.
Toobin said he erroneously believed that he had "muted" the Zoom video.
I guess I believe him. I mean, no one in his right mind would masturbate on camera during a work meeting. Everyone knows you only do that with the camera off.
Kidding.
No one should do at work what Toobin has apologized for ever. It is disrespectful in the extreme, dangerous and has about it the whiff of wanton self-destruction.
It was, in any case, a moment made for Twitter.
Even the vile O.J. Simpson, whose murder trial arguably launched Toobin's career, could not resist indulging in a moment of schadenfreude: "Damn @Jeffrey Toobin," he tweeted. This from a man who was found responsible for one of the more despicable acts in our lifetime.
Had Toobin exposed himself at the office in a meeting with colleagues, he almost certainly would have lost his job and perhaps even faced legal repercussions.
As it stands, social media is ablaze with a new hashtag #MeToobin, and a serious discussion about whether what Toobin did can rightfully be considered sexual harassment.
"I would say that a Zoom call from home is considered the workplace," said Leslie Levy, an Oakland, California, employment discrimination attorney. "I think his colleagues probably could make a complaint of sexual harassment against the employer. It's definitely indecent exposure, though it may not amount to a criminal act."
And maybe he will face professional repercussions other than an announced suspension at the New Yorker pending an investigation and time off at CNN "while he deals with a personal issue."
