I agree with the overall point of the piece, that these two guys are bad "poster boys" for the overall problem of father's rights--even though I don't see people putting up statues of them anywhere--but how did Alec Baldwin get dragged into this? He didn't kidnap anyone, he didn't kill anyone, he yelled at his kid for what he saw as inappropriate behavior. In other words, he acted like a father.

I know, I know, he used language that might damage the kid's self-actualization, or something. Nevertheless, what he said wasn't any worse than 90% of us have heard at one point or another from our parents, and it didn't destroy us or our relationship with our parents. Relating a relatively mild telephone call with kidnapping and/or murder is just silly.

i sent him a note telling him he should just pay the money and let those two manipulative selfish cunts have their own lives. he can't win in the court system anyway, so fuck them.

Dennisism wrote: "how did Alec Baldwin get dragged into this? He didn't kidnap anyone, he didn't kill anyone, he yelled at his kid for what he saw as inappropriate behavior."

Baldwin has aligned himself, naturally, with father's rights after the phone call got spread everywhere and he was in the spotlight. At one point he said he was quitting his show to work on father's rights.

Anyway, that's the connection, I believe. I'm certain Dahlia Lithwick, if asked, would not call the two of them bad on the same levels.

Also, I'd say most of the press coverage Baldwin received during his divorce was actually due to that voicemail message. He may not have done anything else objectionable, but that's the one thing we heard about. That reinforces Lithwick's argument that men in custody battles tend to get media attention (and support) for bad behavior.