Alastair Stewart to leave ITV News.

He tweeted an awful lot, and I can't say I've read every tweet, but I don't recall him ever making a partisan comment, either directly or implied. Plenty of opinions about sport, but that's not important or relevant is it ?

I very much admire Alistair and have interacted with him a few times, including on Twitter. However I have to admit there have been a few times I've raised an eyebrow at some of his tweets about news events. He has been more opinionated than I would expect of someone with ITN in their username.

I think the question is, have ITN had discussions about his conduct before with him? Some responsibility lies with ITN if some of his interactions in the past which have supposedly caused his resignation have gone unchallenged. I think it’s very clear the ‘ape’ tweet is the one they got rid of him of for as all the other questionable interactions seemed to have been ignored until now.

The Mirror quotes an ITN insider:

You know better than his employers and their HR dept.
Their silence has led to a Twitter pile-on though, yes. Which is regrettable.
(That’s not a statement either, it’s an off the record ‘source’.)
I notice the likes of Krish and Jon Snow have reined in their tweets big time, so clearly ITV and Channel 4 were cracking down in the wake of the 2019 election

Perhaps publicly stating he didn't like Gavin and Stacey very much was the real final straw !

I don't know the real details of this decision (I doubt any of us do) but I will say that employers and HR departments often make the worst decisions and often have very little real cop on even after years in their position.

If nothing else, any 'non business' related use of a company provided internet connection is strictly speaking not permitted in most companies. I'm sure many of his Tweets were made using ITN's wifi network, and he probably had an ITN supplied phone and SIM too. Counts as misuse if you're looking to nail someone.

I wonder if - beyond the debate on Alistair - this will extend the conversation already being had at the BBC about journalists using Twitter.

Naturally there's nothing wrong with them quoting from it, but perhaps any comments they are bursting to make on there should be via the umbrella BBC's [1]own Twitter feed without any personal credit ?

[1] Insert relevant broadcaster as applicable

Of course, there is a big difference between using Twitter to share information with -- and solicit opinions from -- members of the public on one hand, and using Twitter to engage in quarrels and petty one-upmanship with members of the public on the other.

Haven't posted for a long while, but feel pretty sad about this. I pretty much grew up with Alastair on London Tonight and latterly ITV News so will be strange to see him not presenting any more (even though in recent times he hadn't been on as much). Will be intresting to see later down the line whether Alastair comments any further on this.

In a way I feel like this would be a good opportunity for ITV News to have a bit of a refresh (less presentation wise, more presenter wise). Although I actually don't mind Tom Bradby too much (he has definitely grown on me), I feel since Mark Austin was sidelined and left, there's been something missing. I think ITV News needs a 'core' team feel back like it was was a few years back (like the below promo). At the moment it definitely feels more Tom being the 'brand' then the others. Would be great if Tom, Mary, Julie and maybe even someone like Ranvir or even a new fresh face were seen more equally as part of the 'brand'.