Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Stewart quits ITV News over racism storm
ITV News presenter Alastair Stewart has stepped down from presenting after 40 years following “errors of judgment” on social media.
ITN said the 67-year-old host had breached its editorial rules, after accusations of racism.
Stewart became embroiled in a Twitter row with policy manager Martin Shapland in a debate about the monarchy.
The presenter, awarded an OBE in 2006, quoted Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, in which a character addresses human vanity by comparing a man to an “angry ape”.
When someone replied: “Careful! You will be accused by the poorly educated ‘Shakespeare is irrelevant these days’ brigade of being racist,” Stewart responded with an angel emoji.
Mr Shapland, a former Liberal Democrat activist, hit back: “If ITV news readers think it’s OK to choose to use outdated classical text to get an association in with the word ape about a black person they’ve been bullying and seeking to belittle all afternoon then this country really is broken.” Stewart, of Bramdean, Hants, had previously used the same Shakespeare quote to answer at least one other user who was not identifiably black.
As he stepped down from his part-time role yesterday, he said: “It’s been a privilege to bring the news to households throughout the UK for the past 40 years.” Tributes to the married father of four included one from Sky’s Adam Boulton, who said: “A great TV journalist, professional model and friend.”
ITV presenter Mary Nightingale, who broke the news on air, wrote: “Very sad about the departure of Alastair. He was a good friend and mentor to me.”
And ITV reporter Julie Etchingham wrote: “Al is a trusted friend and guide to many of us.”
ITN chief executive Anna Mallett said: “We’d like to recognise Alastair’s contribution as one of the UK’S foremost journalists and TV presenters.”