ITN's Alastair Stewart stepping down

Harry Palmr

Looks like he been all but fired as a newscaster -

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/29/alastair-stewart-quits-as-itv-presenter-over-errors-of-judgment

The ITV newsreader Alastair Stewart is stepping down from his presenting duties following “errors of judgment in Alastair’s use of social media”, ITN has said.

There was no immediate indication of the nature of Stewart’s actions.

The presenter – who deleted his Twitter account before the announcement – said in a statement: “It was a misjudgment which I regret, but it’s been a privilege to bring the news to households throughout the UK for the past 40 years.”

In an internal email, ITN staff were told that the decision, also backed by ITV, followed behaviour that breached ITN’s editorial guidelines.

brian_t

Apparently he tweeted the following to a black twitter user.

'But man, proud man,

'Dress'd in a little brief authority,

'Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—

'His glassy essence—like an angry ape

It's a quote from Shakespeares Measure for Measure.

Penn

brian_t wrote: »

Apparently he tweeted the following to a black twitter user.

'But man, proud man,

'Dress'd in a little brief authority,

'Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd—

'His glassy essence—like an angry ape

It's a quote from Shakespeares Measure for Measure.

Read on twitter someone who saw the full back-and-forth between them was that it wasn't just that tweet (though it was the worst due to the ape reference), but Stewart had been on a pretty big rant to him through several tweets.

https://twitter.com/KateMaltby/status/1222658040693972997

Mr.Nice Guy

Seen a lot of people defending him, and normally I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but saying the following to a bespectacled black man you're having an argument with:

'His glassy essence—like an angry ape'

is more than just an unfortunate coincidence imo. He's intelligent enough to know the associations that kind of sentence carries in the context with which he used it.

No sympathy for him.