We live in an age of access, in which we can now get almost instant feedback from our favorite creators, and they can get almost instant feedback from their fans. Instead of waiting months to read fan reactions to stuff they've written, they are getting reaction to stuff before it's even hit the stands (thanks to previews), and they can blather away their innermost thoughts willy-nilly, for all to see, even if those innermost thoughts were perhaps not quite ready for prime-time (if, ever...).
That's a blessing, in some respects, and a curse in many others, as most don't seem to realize that stuff they utter is going to hang around on the internet to haunt them *forever,* and something off-the-cuff that they meant as a one-off witty quip can turn out to be something they probably should have thought twice before hitting the enter key.
Worse, some get defensive, and instead of saying, 'Yeah, I have no idea what I was thinking, let's all pretend I didn't say that and move on' they try to double-down and dig themselves deeper into a hole by defending some indefensible comment they made or insulting anyone who took offense to it by calling them entitled or whiny or overly sensitive or PC or whatever, rather than take responsibility for their statement and just going 'yeah, my bad, that was dumb.' They end up being the guy who farted and then blames everyone else for the bad smell.
The difference between a Byrne or Shooter, is that when crap happens, they are more likely to say 'Yeah, that story about Carol Danvers riding happily off into the sunset with her incest-rapist? That was creepy and I have no idea what I was thinking approving it.' while someone else might go on a wild tear and blame the fans for not 'getting' his genius story, or write a 'Take That!' cheap shot into a story, satirizing or mocking fans who they are feuding with (such as the AU version of Peter Parker in One More Day who calls comic book and video game fans losers who don't have anything better to do with their lives, and seems to have existed only to demonstrate Queseda's vocal and well-documented contempt for comic book fans who didn't like his 'get rid of Peter's marriage' storyline, or Superboy Prime being cast as a basement-dwelling troll who posts angry on the DC forums).
Once you've devolved into yelling at the hecklers in the audience, you need to get the heck off the stage...
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