Alec Baldwin accused of racist rant against black newspaper photographer

Apparently, despite his professed distaste for racism, über-liberal actor Alec Baldwin Baldwin is not above hurling the occasional racist slur himself. The New York Post reports that on Sunday the “30 Rock’’ star lashed out at a black newspaper photographer, calling the man a “c**n,” as well as a “crackhead” and “drug dealer.”

The ugly comments, which were captured on audiotape by a Post reporter, were hurled after the reporter, Tara Palmeri, approached Baldwin on a street in the East Village to ask about a lawsuit against his wife. According to the tape, played back for New York City police, Baldwin told Palmeri, “I want you to choke to death.”

He then turned his fury on her associate, staff photographer G.N. Miller, who maintains in a statement to police:

He was saying some serious racist stuff. He said some choice words about my mother, and he was telling people in the street that I’m a drug dealer.

He could have said a lot of other stuff. But he used all of the stereotypes associated with black people.

Baldwin filed a complaint of his own, insisting that the photographer “pushed into him’’ and that he had “asked [Miller] to keep his distance.”

Last September country singer Hank Williams, Jr., ignited sparks when he called the president “a Muslim … who hates cowboys” and “loves gays.” The comments were inaccurate and unkind, but one would be hard-pressed to argue they were racist. Yet that was precisely how one celebrity characterized them on Twitter, writing, “I think we need to call Hank Williams Jr what he is.... A broken-down, senile, racist coot." That celebrity was Alec Baldwin.

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Howard Portnoy has written for New York's "Daily News" and several national magazines. He has one published novel, "Hot Rain," (G. P. Putnam's Sons), and has ghost-written some dozen books on art and literature. He also blogs at Liberty Unyielding and formerly blogged at Hot Air. Click the ...

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