On Tuesday, hours after he was reportedly fired from MSNBC for an off-set anti-gay rant, Alec Baldwin lashed out at the network for terminating him while not disciplining Martin Bashir, who suggested on air that someone should defecate and urinate in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s mouth.
Baldwin’s remarks were made off-the-cuff, while Bashir’s were scripted and produced.
In an interview with Gothamist, Baldwin exclaimed, “Martin Bashir’s on the air, and he made his comment on the air!”
Baldwin then said he disputed the “half the comment I made… if I called him ‘c*cksucking maggot’ or a ‘c*cksucking motherf*cker’… ‘fa*got’ is not the word that came out of my mouth.”
On the other hand, Bashir has not even attempted to rationalize or justify his vile remarks from two weeks ago and profusely apologized for them, saying his comments were “wholly inappropriate” and “offensive.”
Palin’s PAC, SarahPAC, wrote a letter to MSNBC President Phil Griffin and NBC News President Deborah Turness, which Breitbart News exclusively obtained, pointing out MSNBC’s hypocrisy and asking what discipline it will take against Bashir.
“You fired Don Imus for offensive language in describing the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball team, you suspended Alec Baldwin, and yet nothing has happened to Mr. Bashir,” the letter, which was written after MSNBC had initially suspended Baldwin for two weeks, reads. “Are we to assume then, that disciplinary procedures at your network take place based on the target of the remarks rather than the remarks themselves?”
The letter concludes by saying, “Americans deserve to know that your network doesn’t condone violent and hateful rhetoric directed at anyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or political persuasion.”
Other media observers from Harvard, Pew Research, and TV Newser have also blasted MSNBC for its hypocrisy.
Newser’s Gail Shister said Bashir should be suspended. Alex S. Jones, director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, said MSNBC should have suspended Bashir “at the very least” and noted that MSNBC’s inaction says that the network “tolerates this escalation of vulgarity.”
Amy Mitchell, director of the Pew Research Center’s Journalism Project, asked, “If the network doesn’t take any action, what precedent is being set?”
Former MSNBC hosts the network previously suspended or terminated , like David Shuster and Don Imus, have condemned the network’s hypocrisy and double standards, with Imus simply saying in disbelief to MSNBC President Phil Griffin, “Come on, man!”