One of the United States' best-known TV news personalities has been suspended after he failed to turn off his audio and video before masturbating in the middle of a company Zoom call.
Jeffrey Toobin - a prominent lawyer and author who works for CNN and the New Yorker as a legal analyst - exposed his genitals and began masturbating during a meeting between WNYC radio and New Yorker staff, Vice reports.
A New Yorker spokesperson told Vice the magazine, for whom Toobin has worked for 27 years, had suspended him while it carried out an investigation. It did not say how long the suspension would last.
In a statement, Toobin apologised to his wife, family, friends and colleagues for the error of judgement.
"I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera," he told Vice.
"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."
Despite the incident, Toobin appeared on CNN the following day in his capacity as its chief legal analyst. However the TV network has since issued a statement saying he'd requested some time off while he deals with a personal issue, "which we have granted".
Toobin is a well-known news personality in the US, and has written nine books - including The Run of His Life, an account of the trial of OJ Simpson that was adapted into multi-Emmy Award-winning television series American Crime Story: The People v OJ Simpson.
He had also recently released True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump, about the lawyers trying to prosecute the US President.
