Shameful: CNN’s Brian Stelter Says Star Analyst Jeffrey Toobin’s Masturbation Scandal On Zoom Was An ‘Accident’

By
David Rufful
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OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.

CNN’s Brian Stetler has faced heavy backlash after defending Jeffrey Toobin and his masturbation scandal, according to Fox News.

“Jeffrey Toobin has been sidelined at a pivotal moment in the run-up to the presidential election. The reason: He exposed himself during a Zoom call with New Yorker colleagues in what he says was an accident. Here’s our full story,” Stelter tweeted.

“WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE GUY WHO WHIPPED OUT HIS JUNK DURING A WORK CALL,” writer Andi Zeisler sarcastically exclaimed. “He was not ‘sidelined.’ This didn’t happen *to* him. He made a choice and that choice led to consequences. This isn’t difficult.”

“I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers,” Toobin said in a statement.

“I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video.”

“Dude, the only ‘accident’ was that he got caught. You don’t ‘accidentally’ start jacking off during a video chat,” Daily Wire senior editor Emily Zanotti told Stelter.

“This is not satire. Repeat… THIS IS NOT SATIRE,” National Review contributor Pradheep Shanker warned his Twitter followers.

More from Fox News:

“Imagine a news org framing the Toobin scandal this way (saying he was ‘sidelined’ for an ‘accident,’ not suspended for sexual misconduct), and then ask yourself if you’d believe anything else that news org reported. Anything at all. You would not, and should not,” The Federalist political editor John Daniel Davidson similarly expressed.

Vice reported on Monday that the Zoom call, which was described as an “election simulation,” included Toobin’s New Yorker colleagues Jane Mayer, Masha Gessen, Andrew Marantz, Jelani Cobb, Evan Osnos, Sue Halpern and Dexter Filkins playing various roles including President Trump, Joe Biden, “establishment Republicans,” ‘establishment Democrats,” and “the military.” Toobin was playing “the courts.”

According to two sources, Toobin was seen masturbating in what was supposed to be a 10-minute “strategy session,” though the report added that it “seemed like Toobin was on a second video call.”

“The sources said that when the groups returned from their breakout rooms, Toobin lowered the camera,” Vice said. “The people on the call said they could see Toobin touching his penis. Toobin then left the call. Moments later, he called back in, seemingly unaware of what his colleagues had been able to see, and the simulation continued.”