Menstuff® has compiled the following information on Alec
Baldwin and the Anti-Male Campaign.
The Alec Baldwin Phone Message
Incident
Glenn
Defends Alec Baldwin on Fox's Big Story w John Gibson
Glenn
Sacks Defends Alec Baldwin on Showbiz Tonight
Martha Brockenbrough: 'Baldwin is a Man
with a Broken Heart. He's Lost His Child, the Person He Loves the
Most'
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The Alec Baldwin Phone Message Incident
While I absolutely condemn Baldwin's angry phone message to his daughter, I defend Baldwin's overall position in this case. I consider Kim Basinger's long, well-documented Parental Alienation campaign against Baldwin to be far more damaging to their daughter Ireland than Baldwin's angry outburst, and believe that Basinger has put Baldwin in an extremely difficult and painful position. On the show I said:
"Parental Alienation campaigns such as what Kim has done to Alec Baldwin are very common. This campaign that she has done for the past six years has been so bad that even Basinger's mother has come out and condemned her daughter, and said that Alec is a good father, that he loves his daughter, that she loves him, and that Kim has done everything she could to drive him out of her life.
"This tape, what he did is wrong, there's no question that it's wrong, he should apologize, he has apologized. He lost his temper but let's look at this tape in context--for six years his fatherhood has been hanging by a thread. He's been trying to stay in his daughter's life against every attempt by Basinger to drive him out."
Regarding Basinger's mother's description of the alienation. "Kim Basinger's mother has blasted her own daughter for wrecking relations between her ex-husband Alec Baldwin and the couple's daughter. Baldwin recently took Basinger to court in a bid to extend his custody terms after the actress allegedly violated a court imposed settlement, and now little Ireland's grandmother is speaking out about the court battle...she calls [Baldwin] 'wonderful,' adding, 'My heart is sad for Ireland. She's the one that's suffering the most. All this is killing her. I think Kim has tried to alienate Ireland from her father. Alec loves his daughter with all his heart. He really is a family man...I hate what [Kim] is doing.'"
I was very impressed with celebrity journalist Pat Lalama, the other guest on the show. She's followed the Basinger-Baldwin case form the beginning, and had several interesting observations. As a child of divorce herself, she has some insights as to how it must feel for Ireland to be caught in the middle of this.
Some other points:
1) There are times in any parent's life when the parent blows up at his or her child. There is not one parent reading this--not one--who can honestly say that they've never lost their temper with their children and said things that they should not have said. Those in the media moralizing at Baldwin are either hypocrites, have a faulty memory, or are such marginal parents that they never interacted with their kids enough to reach a real level of frustration. I was a teacher for many years, and Baldwin's tirade, while bad, is nowhere near as bad as some that I've heard. And sometimes the kids deserved it.
2) These tapes were apparently leaked to the media by Basinger, in violation of a court order. Basinger's purpose in leaking them was revenge against Baldwin and leverage in her court battle to drive Baldwin out of his daughter's life. Does anybody really think that Ireland's best interests are served by Basinger leaking this publicly?
Baldwin's lawyer, Viki Roberts, said, "Whatever happened yesterday was sealed and confidential...The mother and her lawyer leaked this sealed material in violation of a court order. Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years....In the best interest of the child, Alec will do what the mother is pathologically incapable of doing - keeping his mouth shut and obeying the court order."
Had Basinger never leaked the tape to the media, Baldwin would've apologized to Ireland and the incident would've been soon forgotten. Instead Ireland is branded by the incident for the rest of her childhood and, to some degree, the rest of her life.
3) One tactic frequently employed by alienating mothers is to drive the father crazy by employing alienation tactics, violating visitation orders, forbidding the father to speak to the child on the phone, poisoning the child's mind against the father, etc. This is done in an effort to provoke the father into blowing his top. And when he does, mom pretends to be a scared, quivering little lamb fearful of "his awful temper."
Basinger played it very well here, and Baldwin was foolish to
allow himself to fall into her trap. I'm sure Basinger will now be
telling us how traumatized Ireland is, and how she is fearful and
needs therapy and time away from her father to recover from what he
did to her. What Ireland really needs is time away from Basinger and
her malignant alienation. I doubt any conflict between Ireland and
Baldwin would last 10 minutes if not for Basinger's influence.
Martha Brockenbrough: 'Baldwin is a Man with
a Broken Heart. He's Lost His Child, the Person He Loves the Most'
"After this, does [Baldwin] have any fans left?
"Despite his faults, he does: me...as a parent, I understand his demons.
"Unlike so many celebrities in Hollywood, whose struggle with excesses of drugs, alcohol and wild spending is completely foreign to me, Alec Baldwin is a man with a broken heart. He's lost his child, the person in the world he loves the most.
"Perhaps it's his own fault. He seems impossible to live with. But just because he's a hard guy to love doesn't mean he's incapable of love. In fact, I'd say the man's suffering in part because he loves so much and is devastated that it's not returned...
"When I first read the voicemail transcript, I shuddered...Even so, I had a moment of recognition -- one that I don't like, but one I'd be a total hypocrite to deny. Just last week, I told my beloved 6-year-old to stop eating like a pig. At the time, she was using her dress as a napkin, something I've asked her not to do literally dozens of times. I even told her that, as a 6-year-old, she was too big to be making such a mess at mealtime.
"I didn't have quite the rage that Baldwin expressed, but if someone passed around a transcript from our dinner table, I wouldn't sound all that much better. And I know I hurt my sweet child's feelings.
"The truth is that very few parents can go a lifetime without saying something regrettable to their children. To the ones who do, I offer my congratulations and admiration.
"For the rest of us, though, who are sometimes worn down by life's stresses, disappointments and apparent exercises in futility, we don't always say the right things to our kids. Sometimes, we even say the exact wrong things--words we may regret for the rest of our days.
"Baldwin revealed a lot about his emotional fragility when he said, 'You have humiliated me for the last time with this phone.'
"I lost my cool when my child didn't use a napkin, but at least I get to see her every day. Baldwin doesn't, and this apparently wasn't the first scheduled call she missed. How devastating for a parent who does not have custody to not be able to count even on phone calls.
"I know if I were in his situation, I would be crushed and frustrated, and very likely to lash out. I suspect I'd be furious with my ex, and I'd be mortally wounded by the apparent indifference of my child. I'd also want to go to wherever she was to explain how much she was hurting me.
"I like to think I'd choose words that expressed my pain and not come across as threatening. But how do we know how we'd react if we felt we'd lost the one person we loved most in the world? How many of us, in our darkest moments, can express such humbling need with perfect clarity?...
"I can understand his emotion more than I understand what could have possessed Kim Basinger's people from leaking a tape that would publicize their child's pain and make it part of the permanent tabloid record.
"In this darkness, though, I think there's a potential bright moment, for Baldwin and other imperfect parents.
"When we screw up, we have an opportunity to teach our children that humans make mistakes. We can ask for forgiveness. We can do better in the future and hope that, when our children become parents themselves, they will have learned that we don't have to be perfect to be lovable and that forgiveness is a gift that heals.
"Meanwhile, I will be thinking of that shattered family, understanding their pain and wishing them well."
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