New Yorker magazine alert thread

like, we don't resort to public shaming for people who accidentally mess up, we reserve it for people like michael vick

I think it doesn’t seem like he deliberately masturbated on camera

wasn't the entire point that he was deliberately masturbating on camera, but forgot to log off from one meeting before jacking off on another

or "forgot"

wasn't the entire point that he was deliberately masturbating on camera, but forgot to log off from one meeting before jacking off on another

i believe that was the version of the story that everyone told themselves, but again, i think it's very possible that what he was doing was very much NOT deliberately masturbating on camera

like, i have a webcam hooked up to my computer. it's usually not on. i hate to scandalize people, but sometimes i masturbate near my computer. and the webcam is probably pointed in my direction!

maybe i'm misunderstanding something. but a lot of people have cameras on their computers that have absolute 0% to do with masturbation

honestly, i think people are just afraid to talk to each other about this stuff, even here? like, i think a lot of people jerk off to webcams these days? personally, i don't. but maybe some people (here and elsewhere) are just immediately gravitating to "and then toobin switched over to the cam model he was video chatting with" or something similar? and believe it or not, since a lot of people don't talk about it, i'm sure some other people gravitate toward something like "and then toobin reached into his drawer and pulled out his dirty magazines", or "and then toobin grabbed his fleshlight and proceeded to replace the AA batteries", or whatever our personal idea of forbidden masturbation is

whatever it is, i'm not sure anyone really knows toobin's work computer/display setup. there are many different arrangements that lead to something that is much more of a embarrassing human kind of error, as opposed to a willingly sleazy risk that deserves shame

my assumption would be he was beating it to porn and just had a spell of "being a boomer online" and did not mute his video from the meeting

Why not assume the people who saw and heard him during the call drew their conclusions from what they saw and heard him doing? idgi

Mr. Toobin switched to a second call that was the video-call equivalent of phone sex, according to the two people familiar with the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

People are focusing too much on whether Toobin "deserves" to be fired, as though it's a judgment of his character that necessarily must take into account his intentions and his past behavior. But it's not really about him at all. It's absolutely in Conde Nast's interest as an employer to draw clear lines when it comes to sexual misconduct. By enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, it sets an example across the organization and helps protect employees in circumstances that aren't as seemingly silly, or who may be less able or willing to shrug off seeing their coworkers' junk on camera.

I mean, I get that Karl is furiously jacking it rn, posting with one hand while a script autoscrolls through every wdyll thread on a third monitor, but it's okay to say so

it's how i've always done it, and i assume that all of you are doing it too

i dunno, maybe i'm not expressing myself well, or i'm just wrong. to me, confirming that he got caught via video sex (as opposed to the other dozens of ways you can be naked near your computer) is an embarrassing detail, but ultimately irrelevant. i don't think he did it on purpose, and i don't think anyone else does too. like jim said, i see him as a boomer who made a dumb tech error.

maybe that's all anyone else is saying, too, who knows

Has anyone even thought that maybe Toobin was in the middle of masturbating and *then* all those famous people from the New Yorker called? And he thought, gah, now!? Of all times? And sort of dutifully put a pause on his activities, took part in the call, and the second it was over thought, OK, where was I? Oh yeah, back to business!

In other words, it's all *their* fault.

he was seen lowering and raising his computer camera, exposing and touching his penis, and motioning an air kiss to someone other than his colleagues

fixed

i see him as a boner who made a dumb tech error.

ok, so it was cam sex

just innocently pounding away with the cam girl he speed dials the second a work meeting ends

everyone else on the call should be fired for watching pornography at work imo

Karl, you realize that what you have there is a neglected potential income stream, right?

i just like chatting with mr toobin, ok

Why not assume the people who saw and heard him during the call drew their conclusions from what they saw and heard him doing? idgi

Mr. Toobin switched to a second call that was the video-call equivalent of phone sex, according to the two people familiar with the call, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, December 16, 2020 12:30 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've been sic'd

fair enough, I suppose I didn't care enough about the story to delve in, but then I shouldn't comment from a point of ignorance.

Toooooobin'
On a Sunday afternoon

everyone else on the call should be fired for watching pornography at work imo

https://newrepublic.com/article/160595/new-yorker-japan-rent-family-fabricated

I mean.... listen you get caught wacking off at work you're gonna get fired I have no idea what type of debate there's supposed to be

Debate was getting fired vs getting publicly shamed, I think, as well as what constitutes “at work” and how the pandemic has arguably changed things. But I think I was the only one who thought any of those things might be relevant, which would mean the debate was more of a dumb guy saying things

you get caught wacking off at work you're gonna get fired I have no idea what type of debate there's supposed to be

Can't get caught if no one is looking. Takes two to tango.

not sure he for sure would have gotten fired had the story not leaked

Was it just the story that leaked?

(Sorry, I'm twelve)

km otm

someday this thread will be in SNA and it will be about a New Yorker article rather than Toobin's dick

nah

maybe we need a new thread: New Yorker magazine alert thread: post-Zoom Jackin' incident edition

(this is petty but at least not toobin-related...) had a hard time with this sentence in anthony lane's 2020 roundup article: "covid-19, an affliction that, like a notable Burgundy, will forever bear the date of its vintage."

ah yes, thank you for finding a way to invoke the mental image of you decanting a fine wine while referencing this tragedy

"September 11, like one's first visit to a favorite Montparnasse brasserie, was a morning that will always be remembered"

Does Anthony Lane have photos of David Remnick’s Toobin or something because he’s the absolute worst

Isn't Lane married to arch-fuckwit-COVID-denier Allison Pearson?

someday this thread will be in SNA and it will be about a New Yorker article rather than Toobin's dick

The Lawrence Wright piece in the current issue about the critical first months of US COVID response is more interesting than Toobin's dick, and substantially longer

Whoa I was not even aware of Allison Pearson, much less her connection to Lane. She seems pretty terrible.

It's also depressing to realize Lane has now been a New Yorker critic for five years longer than Kael was. They need to shake that up.

ideally shaken upside-down from the Brooklyn Bridge

I'm so old I remember when everybody liked Anthony Lane. (Including me! I remember him being authentically funny! Was I wrong? If I went back and read those columns now would I blanch?)

when was that, exactly

At some point I liked Lane enough to buy his book *twice*, once in hardback and once in paperback when I moved to another country.

Now I just skip him entirely - the jokes are tired and everything is a variation on "i'd rather be watching preston sturges"

yeah, I used to like Lane and bought his book

ideally shaken upside-down from the Brooklyn Bridge

that would require him to be in New York, rather than his actual home of Cambridge, England

here is a collection of Pearson, btw:

Good question @allisonpearson! What did they do in China and Wuhan that has allowed them to get back to normal? pic.twitter.com/oLOtKg1suG

— Sam Bowman (@s8mb) January 1, 2021

Oh right he’s English that explains his lechery and his mawkish turns of phrase

I used to like Lane too, I enjoyed his one-liners. He's a breezy writer. But I feel that shtick wore thin a long time ago, and there's not much beneath it. I've never thought he had very interesting ideas about film as a medium — or really, any particular ideas at all. You can like or dislike Brody, but at least he seems like a serious film guy to me, he has an aesthetic orientation steeped in knowledge of cinema. Lane has always seemed like a dilettante.

can't be worse than denby

I remember really liking a piece where he picked some random year from the early 20th century and read every NYT #1 bestseller from that year and reviewed them all. Probably sometime in the 1990s.