If you’re planning on being a racist homophobe (or homophobic racist), it’s best to be a big-time liberal. At least until now, it’s allowed Alec Baldwin to repeatedly slur and slime anyone he chooses.
On Friday evening, MSNBC announced it was pulling Baldwin’s late-night talk show. The move comes at the end of a week in which Baldwin cursed out a female TV reporter, shoved a Post reporter and called a Post photographer a “c–ks–king f-g.” And it comes in a year in which he called a male British journalist a “queen” and another Post shutterbug a “coon.”
Punishment came far more quickly to those public figures who didn’t enjoy Baldwin’s fashionable liberalism.
Consider:
- During the 2012 campaign, radio host Rush Limbaugh was targeted for a boycott for calling Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown Law student campaigning for Obama’s contraceptive mandate, a “slut.” Ten years ago, he lost a job as an ESPN commentator for suggesting journalists held back criticizing quarterback Donovan McNabb because he was black.
- In 2007, after referring to Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos,” shock-jock Don Imus was dumped by both MSNBC and his syndicated radio network — and then forced to attend Al Sharpton Behavior Modification Camp.
- In 2010, former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez in a radio interview called comedian Jon Stewart a “bigot” who saw the world through the eyes of “elite, Northeast establishment liberals.” He also suggested the Jewish Stewart wasn’t a minority in an industry with many Jews. CNN sacked him.
Alec Baldwin has a long history of outrageous slurs and behavior, followed by quasi-apologies and claims he was misquoted. So it’s no surprise he’s paying a price.
The only question is why it took so long.