Notorious Deadbeat Dad Jeff Toobin Wants Web Histories Forgotten
So much of editing is matching a writer to a story: Tennis player and super fan David Foster Wallace on Roger Federer. Ex-Wall Street trader Michael Lewis on the financial crisis. And, now, in this week's New Yorker, deadbeat father and alleged ass-play aficionado Jeffrey Toobin on the right to control one's Google results.
In "Solace of Oblivion," Toobin explores the so-called "right to be forgotten"—the right, recently established in a European Court of Justice decision, "to prohibit Google from linking to items that were 'inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed.'"
A fascinating and pressing issue for us all. But especially for Toobin. The third result in a search of his name turns up a New York Daily News article called "CNN legal eagle Jeffrey Toobin in baby mama drama - with daughter of CBS News' Jeff Greenfield."
Toobin, Google will help you remember, was the defendant in a child-support battle with his mistress and baby mama, lawyer Casey Greenfield. The case was so acrimonious it inspired his ex to start a law firm dedicated to vicious family-law cases, as the New York Times explained in a lengthy profile, with links to coverage of the scandal.
Besides the Times and Daily News stories there was a great deal of other press, all freely available after a Google search. Right here on Gawker.com, even, there's "CNN Analyst Jeffrey Toobin Graciously Offered to Pay for Mistress' Abortion"—
—and my personal favorite, "Too Hot For Print: CNN Anchor Jeffrey Toobin's Rumored XXX Sex Fetish": "[W]e have heard from a tipster who asked to remain anonymous that multiple women alleged Toobin was into...anal sex and fisting, and had a bit of what could be deemed an "anal fixation[.]").
Ah. No wonder Toobin is so interested in the possibility of an American "right to be forgotten." Still, now that booty-eating is mainstream, who wouldn't want to be eternally memorialized in a corporate server farm as an ass-play visionary?
Elsewhere in this week's New Yorker, recent Bard graduate Alice Gregory surveys Bard.
[image via Getty]