CNN has yet to elaborate on its decision to bring Toobin back after an eight-month absence, a decision that reportedly blindsided rank-and-file CNN staffers who learned about the news while Alisyn Camerota interviewed him last week. If CNN does elaborate, The Washington Post's Erik Wemple has several questions, including: "Toobin was off the air for about eight months: Was that period considered at CNN a suspension, a leave of absence, or what? Did CNN make any demands or requests about how Toobin spend the time?" and "If Toobin’s conduct doesn’t qualify as a firing offense, what does?" "We have yet to receive any answers to those questions. CNN hasn’t to date issued a statement explaining its thinking with respect to Toobin, who referred an interview request to the network’s PR department," says Wemple, who adds that "the social media conversation will return to Toobin and CNN, again and again — especially when the news cycle churns out scandalitos topically adjacent to Toobin’s misdeeds. Let the mockery rain down: Why go easy on a network that won’t even defend its own actions?" ALSO: The View hosts defend Toobin's CNN return: “In this case, he was not sexually harassing anybody," says Ana Navarro, "he didn’t have the intent to sexually harass somebody."
TOPICS: Jeffrey Toobin, CNN, The View, Ana Navarro, Cable News, Sexual Misconduct