Alec Baldwin rails at media, says his MSNBC show may not come back

Alec Baldwin says his suspended MSNBC show is in serious jeopardy -- and for that, he’s blaming mainly the “tabloid media.�

“Whether the show comes back at all is at issue right now,� the former “30 Rock� star wrote in a blog post Saturday, criticizing journalists for baiting and harassing him with tactics that “should be illegal.�

Baldwin’s talk show “Up Late� was suspended for two weeks Friday after TMZ published video of the combative actor climbing out of a car and berating a photographer with a crude gay slur -- just months after he had been excoriated for calling another journalist “a toxic little queen.�

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Running counter to an earlier apology posted on the show’s website, Baldwin now denies using the word, although he seems to admit using a vulgar sexual term often directed against gay men. “I can assure you, with complete confidence, that a direct homophobic slur (or indirect one for that matter) is not spoken,� Baldwin wrote of the incident.

“My friends who happen to be gay are baffled by this,� he wrote. “They see me as one who has recently fought for marriage equality and has been a supporter of gay rights for many years. Now, the charge of being a ‘homophobic bigot,’ to quote one crusader in the gay community, is affixed.�

He acknowledged that “Up Late� -- which has produced low ratings for MSNBC on Fridays -- may never return. And it looks certain that a special episode pegged to the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination won’t see the light of day.

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“The show is no doubt a work in progress and one that I believe featured some interesting guests and disseminated a good deal of interesting information,� Baldwin wrote. “But if the show dies, its fate ends up being no different than the vast majority of start-up TV programming, and so be it.�

But the media deserves much of the blame, he writes. “The press never turns the camera around on themselves. Least of all the tabloid press. My wife is a young mother with a newborn child. Yet reporters harass and hector her and our baby outside our home in ways that approximate a hockey brawl. It is shameful. And it should be illegal.�

What do you think of Baldwin’s latest rant? Is he right that he’s being tormented by the media, or does he just need to get over himself?

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