CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin is back. I’m sure you saw the very awkward interview he did upon his return. Oh, and he has a book coming out. Toobin was forced into exile for months after he was caught masturbating on a Zoom call with staffers from The New Yorker. Toobin was a former contributor to this publication. This self-gratification episode led to his firing. Host Alisyn Camerota did ask a good question upon his return which was how could this have happened? Toobin has covered many a political episode of politicians getting caught with their pants down. From Clinton to Spitzer, Toobin was there. This was the most unforced of unforced errors. He merely said he’s a flawed guy. Only at CNN could this be viewed as an acceptable reason and one that would bar someone from being fired. So, why did CNN offer a helping hand? You already know. The Left believes in second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth chances (via WaPo):
CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin returned to the air Thursday — for the first time since he exposed himself during a virtual meeting with colleagues from the New Yorker magazine last fall.
Toobin appeared on an afternoon show hosted by co-anchor Alisyn Camerota after a long absence from public view that began in October, when Vice.com reported that he had been seen inappropriately touching himself during a Zoom video call with colleagues at the New Yorker, where he had worked as a staff writer since the 1990s. Toobin apologized at the time for what he called “an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera.”
[…]
The October incident immediately upended Toobin’s long career in journalism. The New Yorker suspended him. The next month, an executive at the company that owns the magazine announced that Toobin would not be returning, following an investigation into his behavior. On Twitter, Toobin said he was “fired.”
But his other employer, CNN, told reporters that he had asked for “some time off while he deals with a personal issue” — a request the network granted.
The network then remained silent about Toobin’s status for months, until now.
Describing his absence from TV, Toobin told viewers: “I have spent the seven subsequent months — miserable months — in my life . . . trying to be a better person. I’m in therapy, trying to do some public service, working in a food bank . . . working on a new book. . . . But I am trying to become the kind of person that people can trust again.”
[…]
Requesting anonymity to speak frankly, a network executive told The Washington Post that enough time had passed since the incident, and Toobin deserved a second chance.
“I don’t think that one terrible mistake should define a person or ruin their employment opportunities for life,” the executive said, noting that Toobin had already been humiliated and mocked for a “wildly embarrassing” but “unintentional” mistake.
The executive said the network investigated the incident before allowing Toobin to return — even though it occurred at the New Yorker, not CNN — and that Toobin fully cooperated with that probe.
The publication also added, albeit towards the end of the piece, that this welcoming back of Toobin seems a bit out of place given that longtime contributor Rick Santorum was fired for making politically incorrect remarks about Native Americans, a much less severe oversight by a longshot. If you make remarks about Native Americans that liberals don’t like, you’re gone, but getting caught masturbating in front of others deserves a second chance. That’s CNN.
Jim Treacher also asked a good question regarding Toobin’s return which was that this entire time the network couldn’t find another liberal lawyer to fill his shoes?
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