Alec Baldwin: Respect My Family and Don't Blame MSNBC

Alec Baldwin is pleading with the public to not take any anger with him out on MSNBC in light of the uproar over epithets he yelled at a photographer last week, and to respect the privacy of his family.

It has been reported that Baldwin called the photographer, who approached the actor and his family near their Manhattan home, a "cocksucking little faggot." Baldwin, whose MSNBC talk show, Up Late, was suspended for two weeks in light of the incident, denies using the antigay slur.

"I never used the word faggot in the tape recording being offered as evidence against me," Baldwin writes in a column published in The Huffington Post Saturday. "What word is said right after the other choice word I use is unclear. But I can assure you, with complete confidence, that a direct homophobic slur (or indirect one for that matter) is not spoken." He also points out his support for marriage equality and LGBT rights in general, and laments that he is now considered a "homophobic bigot."

He goes on to praise MSNBC and says, "Don't allow my problem to be MSNBC's problem," and he also says he fears for his family's safety with so many celebrity-stalking paparazzi around. He and his second wife, Hilaria, have an infant daughter, and he has another daughter with previous mate Kim Basinger.

"Please respect the privacy of my wife and family," he writes. "If you have an opinion of me, then express it. Think what you like. But I ask that my wife, who I care about more than words can say, and both my children, be left out of this."