Jon Stewart told Daily Show writer to "f*** off" after racial conversation

[JDPriestly]

4. Jon Stewart is an artist. That's no excuse, but a volatile temper is all too often a sort of

piggy-backer on an artistic, very creative temperament.

At the university I attended, there was an extremely gifted orchestra conductor. He was great at his job. But when he approached an elevator, all the students evacuated that small enclosure immediately. Nobody even wanted to be in the elevator with him. It was his way or the highway. Jon Stewart may be difficult. Just possibly. I don't know him from Adam as a person, but he may be moody and prone to all kinds of outbursts -- angry, joyful, creative, insightful but unexpected.

Jon Stewart should apologize and that should be that. It may just be his personality. To be a comedian (and I know some good ones), you have to be able to detach yourself from what is going on and look at it as though you were outside it, above it or beyond it and then that situation seems funny and you see the humor and can communicate it. Some of the comedians I know, good ones, tend to actually be a bit depressed.

So I would not jump to the conclusion that Jon Stewart is a racist based on this. He is probably just rather quick tempered. He has too many vignettes on his show that ridicule racism, and he has too many really good Black comedians on his show to be a racist.

We have lots of overly temperamental folks of all colors, shapes and sizes on DU. We accept and love all of them, I hope.

But still Jon Stewart should apologize.