Kathy Griffin slams CNN for firing her but not Jeffrey Toobin

Kathy Griffin sees a "double standard" in her firing from CNN.

The comedian on Thursday's The View discussed CNN's decision to cut ties with her in 2017 over a controversial photoshoot that depicted her holding a mask resembling then-President Trump's severed head. Griffin had for years hosted the network's New Year's Eve show with Anderson Cooper.

"I got canned from CNN, which hurt me a lot personally because I loved that gig," Griffin said. "But then for me to watch [CNN legal analyst] Jeffrey Toobin talking about women's choice after he masturbated on a Zoom call — which I know sounds funny, but maybe it wasn't so funny for the other ladies who worked at [The New Yorker] that had to see that."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Toobin was fired from The New Yorker last year after exposing himself and masturbating while on a work Zoom call. He called it an "embarrassingly stupid mistake" and said he didn't realize his camera was on at the time. Toobin is also a legal analyst at CNN. The network placed him on leave after the New Yorker incident, but he returned to CNN in June. "I have spent the seven subsequent months — miserable months in my life, I can certainly confess — trying to be a better person," Toobin said. He has since continued to provide analysis on CNN.

On The View, Griffin called for a conversation about "the level of misogyny and ageism" in the United States, and she argued, "When a guy does something, we joke about it. I do believe there's a double standard."

Griffin apologized for the Trump photo in 2017, but she later walked her apology back, saying, "I am no longer sorry. The whole outrage was B.S." She said on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week while promoting her role in the next season of Search Party that more than four years later, she's "very slowly getting uncancelled."