Magazine fires staff writer for masturbating on office zoom call

New Yorker magazine has fired one of its staff writer Jeffrey Toobin after he masturbated during a staff Zoom call meeting.

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.”

https://twitter.com/JeffreyToobin/status/1326644658991140866

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.”