I heard the audio, and it's the worse thing I've ever heard.  I can't imagine what it's like to be that girl.  Poor kid.

Man.  That is fucked up beyond belief.  What kind of person talks to a child that way?  Let alone your OWN child?  You bet your ass I would have turned around and taken that audio to the custody judge.  Verbal abuse can be nearly as traumatizing as physical abuse.  And if you knew he talked like that to your daughter on the phone, how much would you worry about how he talked to her when she was staying with him?  I wouldn't be able to sleep while she was away.

Baldwin; what a bastard.

I've always sensed he was a narcissistic asshat. Now that confirms it for sure.

None of us have any real context for this, but looking at it through the filter of being a child of divorce with some real doozy broken marriages in the family, and having been an adolescent girl with all the self-centered shittiness that implies, I'm not inclined to snap to judgment.

Honestly?  Regardless of context, this is wildly inappropriate language and sentiment to aim at an 11-year-old.  Period.  Messy divorce or not, you don't unload that kind of shit on your kid if you are a healthy adult.  You just don't.  

I agree that it's inappropriate, but I disagree that a healthy parent can't be provoked to this kind of outburst.

"Messy divorce or not, you don't unload that kind of shit on your kid if you are a healthy adult.  You just don't."

Which would be fine, if that was your only point -- it's most certainly shocking audio.

I prefer to live by the "glass houses" rule, and not take it further and make sweeping judgments about someone's mental state and right to visitation based on an isolated incident.

But this is not an isolated incident.  His temper tantrums are well-documented.  And while I agree that a healthy adult can be driven to rage, to unleash that rage on a child - to threaten her, and call her names, to scream at her, and blame her for his emotions - that's sick!  l

While I have no idea what it is like to lose a spouse and daughter in a painful, messy, public divorce, I do have some idea of what it means to take responsibility for my own feelings of anger and frustration, and not dump them all over my child.  

Expressing anger to kids?  Flne.  Letting them know they've disappointed?  Fine.  They need to know those things.  But not that way.  Not like that.  There is just no excuse.

Every single one of is is probably going to do or say something to our children at some point that is totally regrettable and maybe even reprehensible, to some degree. That's just being realistic. It might not be this bad, but it's going to happen.

That someone thought it would be beneficial somehow to air this guy's serious parenting mistake to the public doesn't really say much for their interest in protecting this child. And if "someone" is Kim Basinger or her legal counsel, that's totally messed up. Just as messed up, or more, than the fact that Alec Baldwin lost his shit to begin with. Because it's one thing to lose your shit, and it's another thing entirely to make the calculated choice to ensure that the whole world knows that your kid was treated that way, whether it's an isolated incident or a real example of his parenting.

People are going to remember for a real long time that this guy went off like this on an eleven year old girl, and this may not be in any way an accurate barometer of his ability as a father.

The only thing I find more repulsive than the fact that people treat their children like this, celebrity or not? The fact that other people sit around and read about it in the newspaper.  Just imagine how much LESS hell this child would be going through if the media weren't in such a hurry to print every word her parents said to each other.

You think stuff like this doesn't help so much either? You know? Reprinting it over and over and speculating about her fathers mental state? Kind of the pot calling the kettle black, huh?

Wow, that was seriously frightening!

When I listened to the tape yesterday I just sat there with my jaw on my chest..I have a daughter the same age and the idea of anyone, let alone her father, talking to her like that is sickening.  I'm a single parent, and sure..I get mad and even pop off at the mouth from time to time..but NOTHING like that, nothing hurtful, or damaging.  This is a scary peek into the window of mental illness if you ask me.  I think Kim Bassinger did exactly the right thing by making this public, do whatever you have to do to keep your kids safe.  What really makes me sad is that I kind of doubt that this is the fist time it's happened...what has this kid's life been like torn between two warring parents, one of whom, at least, is a mentally and verbally abusive bastard?

While I agree that this particular voicemail is horrifying, something like this doesn't happen in a vacuum.  There's fault on all sides, and unless we are one of the three people involved, not one of us knows the whole story.

How many non-celebrity parents have been pushed to this kind of outburst?  Quite a few, I'd wager.  They just don't have to have it splashed all over the freaking world whenever it happens.

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There is NO justification for talking to his 11-year-old like this. I don't care what the situation is, I don't care how she's treated him in the past, I don't care, I don't care.

If he had unleashed on Kim in this way, that would be more understandable--plus, she's an adult, and she's not his child.

I can also understand him being angry that she missed his scheduled call, but there are much, much better ways of expressing that than screaming at her that she's a "rotten little pig." No wonder the kid doesn't want to talk to him.

What he did was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.  But I bet you heaven against hell that you will one day be enraged enough at your pre-teen or teen to do exactly the same thing.  The sad part is that we are only human.  We can't go back and change anything.  We can't fix it.  We just blow up and off and then are left to pick up the pieces of our stupid mistakes.  I think both parents are off the mark.  Kim and Alec are both celebrity narcissists.  If either one of them cared a little bit, they would not be fighting in public at all.  It is a private matter and should have been kept that way.  My heart goes out to Ireland.  She has to see it in the news, hear it on the internet and be reminded everyday of her life that she is not a normal child.  Her parents did this.

I cannot believe how WAY out of proportion this has been blown.  I totally get that he lost it and used inappropriate language with his child.  I understand that he should not have belittled her mother to her.  I get all that.  

It's amazing that in light of how many children fall through the cracks of the system in TRULY abusive situations, that they are even CONSIDERING terminating Alec's parental rights behind this nonsense.  

I can only imagine the frustration that Alec must feel in being disrespected by his daughter time and time again, and to have that disrespect sanctioned by her mother.  Regardless of the relationship of the parents, they must band together to effectively co-parent the child.  The TRUE abuse comes when a mother allows a child to disregard the other parent simply because she no longer likes him.  What the hell is that?

This voicemail was bad. But it wasn't the worst thing I've ever heard.  And if we had MORE parents who cared enough to be willing to "STRAIGHTEN their kids OUT" the way that Alec promised to, the world would be a better place.

Now Alec Baldwin is royally pissed at Dora. Yelling at your daughter on voicemail ? That I can understand.