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CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin earned El American’s Idiocy of the Week, after trying to explain why the penalties for Internet users caught with child pornography should be lenient.
The eagerness of CNN journalists to defend any measure coming from the Democratic environment is well known, but Jeffrey Toobin’s effort to explain Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s position to lighten sentences for possession of child pornography is really striking.
During the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson — a black woman appointed by Joe Biden — had to defend her criteria when it comes to punishing pedophiles with child pornography on the Internet. According to Senator Josh Howley (R-MO), Biden’s nominee has a record of sentences against these types of offenders that are much softer than the law or the charges suggested.
Jeffrey Toobin rushed to CNN’s At This Hour to explain why these lightened sentences for pedophiles were the right ones. According to him — agreeing with the judge — the penalties for possession of child pornographic material are outdated and unconscionable because they were handed down before the Internet era.
“This came up, I remember, when I was an assistant U.S. Attorney back in the ’90s is that when those sentencing guidelines were written for those cases, that this was a time when the people who committed these crimes would order individual photos and get them usually through email and then they would be sentenced based on the number of photos they possessed,” Toobin began to explain.
Overlooking the slip of the tongue in saying email when he meant snail mail, it is troubling that he justifies the severity of a sentence based on how easy it is to commit the crime. “This was all pre-internet. So once the internet came in and people got access to hundreds and then thousands of photos, they would, the sentencing guidelines would reflect hundreds and then thousands of photos.”
This would be like saying that since there are more and more powerful weapons capable of killing more people, murder is less serious. “Hey, this guy killed 10 people with an automatic rifle, but the murder laws were designed for when there were only revolvers, so let’s adjust and make the penalty for killing, say, 3 or so people,” they seem to be saying.
It is ironic that the Democrats are unable to understand the monetary phenomenon of inflation, or even try to deny it, but apply a kind of inflation to crime, especially one as despicable as pedophilia.
“We found ten thousand pornographic photos of minors on this guy’s hard drive, but if the Internet didn’t exist, he would have had only a dozen of them, let’s not be so hard on him. What’s more, it’s the internet’s fault! Let’s let this poor computer victim go free!” That’s how they sound.
Jeffrey Toobin, internet pornography expert
Perhaps Jeffrey Toobin’s apparent animosity towards the internet is due to the “incident” he had with Zoom a couple of years ago, when during a videoconference with his New Yorker co-workers, he was caught red-handed masturbating with his webcam on, and to the surprise and disbelief of all the attendees, we suppose.
The truth is that CNN’s decision to invite Jeffrey Toobin to comment on Internet pornography is very funny. We don’t know if it was an oversight on CNN’s part or an act of fine irony. Although knowing CNN’s history, almost any contributor they would have invited would have had a similar profile.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm