I’m confused, wouldn’t That Activity have been going on below the desk? I know in my case…
…
eta: …I’d just be caught playing with my action figures when I’m in a boring meeting.
Some people just have a hard on for politics.
“Jeff Toobin has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted,” CNN says.
Update: he only asked for 10 minutes.
I wood not beleive it
His explanation makes it sound like he just thought his camera wasn’t on, and that was the only mistake he made.
The implications of that, in light of his position on CNN as a commentator shown from the chest up, are … disturbing.
Maybe this is the talking heads’ version of the mile high club. Really, what are all these people doing with their hands?
The day that “toobin’” became a verb.
Yikes.
I can’t help noticing that something like this is referred to in Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves…
You know, I’m fine saying his only mistake was leaving the camera on. The guy is bored during a long meeting and wants to pull one off in private, I don’t see a reason to shame him. It’s the “in private” part that was the problem, not that he, like everyone else, occasionally takes care of his own business.
If your Zoom call lasts more than four hours, call tech support immediately.
Boy howdy. I’ve been really bored on some Zoom calls, but never that bored.
Very sorry to hear about this. Toobin’s The Nine is one of my favorite books about SCOTUS. He’s a smart guy and a very skilled writer who obviously made a really stoopid mistake.
I’ve never heard it called that before … 
CNN has a short article on it as of this morning. The New Yorker has been discreetly silent. Fox News of course pounced on it immediately, accusing CNN of trying to hide it.
Shouldn’t it have been Toobin who tried to hide it?
Isn’t the issue that he didn’t try to hide it?
Either way, he was a New York Yankee.
I’m wondering if they could have played this as a medical event – he “had a small stroke.”
He’s not being criticized for masturbating. He’s criticized for masturbating while being telepresent with his co-workers and thinking it’s okay because he had the camera off.
I’m sure lots of men do it and get away with it. But it’s shamefully disrespectful to every co-worker who is on the phone while you’re jerking it. If you’re truly not needed on the call, announce “I’m leaving”, log off, and go whack it as much as you want. Otherwise, find some non-porny way to manage the boredom.
tl;dr: jerking it on a conference call does not become okay if you mute the video. It becomes much less okay if you fail to mute the video.
ETA: This situation is extremely funny from a schadenfreude perspective of making fun of someone who’s done something bad, and we should enjoy it in that spirit, but I doubt his co-workers feel very amused about it.
This is a really bad time for Toobin to be yanked pulled removed from the commentary scene. Seriously, on the eve of an election and with a religious zealot about to be appointed to the Supreme Court, his insightful commentary will be missed. Whatever his faults, he was a respected legal scholar.
He could have had some beef jerky. Preferably, Jack Link’s.
What the fuck is with the “he was bored” shit? No man in the history of video calling has jerked off while in a work meeting because they were bored, they’re jerking off because they’re getting off on the fact that everyone else on the call doesn’t know.
It’s like pretending flashers are just people who plumb forgot to put on their inner clothes before they left the house that day and it was “unfortunate” that their outer coat came undone.