Alec Baldwin: Return to MSNBC ‘At Issue Right Now’

By Jordan Chariton 

Alec Baldwin responded to the firestorm his anti-gay slur has created in a Huffington Post piece Saturday, denying that he used the word “faggot” and claiming other alleged words he used are “unclear.” But the piece also casts another item unclear: whether his currently suspended MSNBC show “Up Late” will ever return.

Another issue I want to address is the decision by MSNBC to suspend my show. Whether the show comes back at all is at issue right now. My producers and I had a very enlightening and well-researched program prepared to air on November 22nd itself, dealing with John Kennedy’s assassination. That show is off the air now. I am deeply apologetic to Ron Fried, who worked extremely hard with me on that show. It’s heartbreaking to me that the show, meant to coincide with the actual anniversary, will not be aired that night. 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. 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. We do take a small amount of pride in knowing that we beat CNN in the ratings each of our nights. (I forget who they had on at that time.)

After alluding to his uncertainty over the show’s future, Baldwin goes onto praise MSNBC’s “left leaning tone,” while coining Rachel Maddow “perhaps the single most important television journalist on the air today.”

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Baldwin also denounced the press for never turning the camera on themselves, criticizing reporters for harassing his wife, a young mother caring for her newborn child, and comparing the press coverage to a “hockey brawl.”

For now, “Up Late” is set to return to MSNBC on November 29.

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