Toronto Star columnist says CNN — and America — just can't afford to lose a treasure like Jeffrey Toobin at a time like this

America really needs some help putting this whole Jeffrey-Toobin-masturbating-on-a-Zoom-call thing into perspective.

Enter Toronto Star entertainment columnist Vinay Menon to do just that:

OPINION: Jeffrey Toobin didn’t cover himself in glory — or, regrettably, anything else — in that fateful Zoom call, but CNN and his country need him, writes Vinay Menon.https://t.co/zhiFr3iKEf

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) October 20, 2020

OK, so first of all:

Uh it is not, in fact, regrettable that he didn't cover himself in "anything else" https://t.co/56VgnSALwB

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 21, 2020

It is not regrettable.

What is regrettable is that Vinay Menon came up with this take and that the Toronto Star thought it was worth sharing with the world:

But we need to keep perspective. We need to see the big picture. Granted, there are few things more unprofessional than masturbating during a company meeting. Toobin is a lawyer. His judgment is now suspect. I get it. All I’m saying is we need to forget this ever happened. Block it out.

Toobin may not grasp streaming technology. He may well be cursed with the hormones of a randy teenager. But he also has one of the sharpest legal minds on the continent. He cuts through the noise. He brings deep context to shallow airwaves. As a writer and broadcaster, he is everything we need, now more than ever: smart, thoughtful, insightful, incisive and knowledgeable.

…

He made an embarrassingly stupid mistake.

Let’s leave it at that and get on with saving America.

Or — hear us out — let’s not.

This is where the national lawyer shortage no one has been talking about has gotten us. We can't afford to lose Toob. https://t.co/mDTCnrZjr2

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) October 21, 2020

We need a man who pressured a woman to have an abortion, followed another woman to her hotel room, and can’t get through a work meeting without jacking off?

One of the points of the #metoo movement is that we DON’T need these men.

He’s not a heart surgeon. https://t.co/RvtkTdR7dn

— Caitlin Flanagan (@CaitlinPacific) October 21, 2020

The dereliction of duty across media who refuse to protect people from a serial sexual harasser and grade A jerk is really depressing. https://t.co/OsbhU3pzod

— Ellen Carmichael (@ellencarmichael) October 21, 2020

I'm pretty sure I can come up with a long list of legal analysts who are at least as insightful and have never masturbated on a work-related Zoom call. https://t.co/EZ78GauKas

— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) October 21, 2020

I think I speak for tens of millions of Americans in saying that we can live without more Jeffrey Toobin. https://t.co/Cir1QVIbfL

— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) October 21, 2020

Jeffrey Toobin is a modestly-above-replacement-level TV talking head. If he’s America’s last hope, we are screwed. https://t.co/hD2ttTORxm pic.twitter.com/eirEnQlidi

— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) October 21, 2020

Yeah we are.

I think CNN is capable of finding a new replacement legal expert who doesn't masturbate during Zoom calls, but you know me, the eternal optimist

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 21, 2020

Apparently political punditry is a skill so precious and rare that the magical human unicorns who are born with it must never lose air time, no matter how vigorously they jerk off in the office breakroom

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) October 21, 2020