Alastair Stewart OBE, a news anchor for ITN has effectively seen his career ended for offending a black man who allagedly didn’t understand the context of his comments online.
Stewart (67) quoted a passage from Shakespeare that uses the simile of an angry ape behaving ridiculously to mock the argument of Martin Shapland on Twitter.
The quote reads as follows
“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
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.”
Which is from the play ‘Measure for Measure’.
The reference in the quote to an “ape” provoked a predictable outcry from “anti-racists” on Twitter who apparently either don’t understand or don’t care about context or Shakespeare and their tantrum paid off after the veteran reporter with a commendable career was made unemployed.
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