But on one level, I think it is a personal determination-- what you, as a reader/viewer, decide is 'well-intentioned but needs work' and what you decide is 'not worth putting up with.'

I absolutely agree with you. On a personal level, I think you are right.

But on a political level, there may be other choices to be made: which in this case amount to weighing up what it should take to earn a place on a publicly posted so-called 'shit list' of 'racist and sexist authors'. If a foot-in-mouth remark will do it, why, then most of us are damned, sooner or later, for something. This is, after all, the week when President Obama has just made a stupid off-the-cuff 'joke' about the Special Olympics.