Journalist Sacked After He Was Caught Touching Himself During Office Zoom Call

[Yakub Oloyede]

A top journalist who worked for the New Yorker magazine for 27 years has lost his job after masturbating on a staff Zoom call.
 
Jeffrey Toobin who regretted his action also tendered an apology.
 
The 60-year-old who is also senior legal analyst for CNN, confirmed in a tweet that he had been sacked.
 
He wrote on Twitter;
 
“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.”
 
The New Yorker’s parent company Conde Nast wrote in an email to staff: “I want to assure everyone that we take workplace matters seriously.”
 
After he was suspended last month Mr Toobin said he had believed himself to be off-camera during the incident.
 
Vice News, which broke the initial story, reported that senior colleagues had seen Mr Toobin masturbating while apparently on a separate video call.
 
The incident happened on 15 October during an election simulation involving the New Yorker and WNYC radio. Mr Toobin was immediately suspended.
 
In a statement to Vice last month, he said: “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera.”
 
He apologised to his family, friends and colleagues.

“I believed I was not visible on Zoom,” he told Vice. “I thought no-one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”
See tweet