MSNBC anchor Alec Baldwin was videotaped shouting “c**ksucking f*g,” to a photographer by TMZ.com, John Nolte writes at Big Journalism:
MSNBC hired Baldwin knowing he was already guilty of hurling anti-gay hate speech at a reporter. Back in June, Baldwin not only used his Twitter account to hurl anti-gay slurs, he threatened the reporter and called on his Twitter followers to “straighten out this f**king little bitch.”
Almost all of the mainstream media gave Baldwin a total pass for his reprehensible behavior last June. In fact, afterwards he won a weekly show on MSNBC (which is currently collapsing in the ratings).
Maybe the media was exhausted after destroying cooking guru Paula Deen over something she said thirty years ago.
Nolte refers to Baldwin as an “actor,” but as I mentioned back in August, when the idea for Baldwin’s show was initially floated by NBC, if the former actor is going to host a talk show for NBC, then he’s now in the same profession as the photographers he loves to threaten and hurl abuse at — they’re both working journalists attempting to gather news and information and present them to the public. And why NBC would sanction any of their employees to behave in such a fashion is a curious double-standard — almost as big a double-standard as contractually allowing Al Sharpton to remain an activist while also playing the role of NBC anchorman.
Between’s Al Sharpton’s history of rabble-rousing, fabulism, and anti-Semitism, Baldwin’s hair-trigger homophobia, and the number of microphones Ed Schultz must ruin each week with his spittle-flecked invective, keeping a safe distance from all of NBC’s toxic anchors seems like rather sound advice these days — perhaps for members of both parties.
Of course, why Capital One continues to employ the notoriously abusive spokesman as the most visible face of their product is also a question worth pondering.
Incidentally, back in early September, I wrote:
Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC couldn’t be more pleased to have Baldwin aboard. When speaking with NPR in 2011 about that year’s addition to the MSNBC lineup, the NBC executive gushed, “I’m a big fan of the Reverend Sharpton. I’ve known him quite a bit. he’s smart. He’s entertaining. He’s experienced. He’s thoughtful. He’s provocative, all the things I think that MSNBC is.” Griffin is similarly effusive about the equally pugilistic Baldwin:
“I’ve been talking with Alec for a while and can’t wait to bring his personality and eclectic interests to MSNBC,” said Griffin in a statement. “He’s got such passion for ideas and what’s going on in the world — he’s going to be a great addition to our lineup.”
How’s that great new addition working out these days, Phil?
Related: “MSNBC Graphic Admits ObamaCare Had ‘Failed Rollout,'” Ken Shepherd writes at Newsbusters. Considering what a toxic work environment the perpetually beleaguered NBC subsidiary must be to work in (and nothing new there), “Pity the poor MSNBC graphics guy who is probably on thin ice if not already packing up his desk over this.”
Just lock him into a Law & Order interrogation room with Baldwin, Sharpton or Schulz for a half-hour — it’ll never happen again.
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