Do something, Arec Barrwin! begs Kim Jong-Un in the 2004 comedy, Team America: World Police. Except that, as Kim finds out, Arec Barrwin is useress. Arec Barrwin… I mean, Alec Baldwin… is rapidly learning the same lesson.
As part of my degree, I was forced to take several compulsory Communications units. Easily the least-useless was “Crisis and Risk Communication”, which was essentially What to Do When It Hits the Fan. The first lesson was: say nothing. Seriously, in a crisis, it’s best to say nothing at all rather than blurt out something which is going to come back to haunt you, big time.
You should have ristened, Arrec Barrwin.
Alec Baldwin has disabled his social media accounts, including Twitter, after being exposed for lying about not pulling the trigger.
The trigger in question is, in case you’ve lived under a rock for the past month or so, belongs to the gun that Baldwin accidentally discharged on a movie set, killing the cinematographer and badly wounding the director.
While this might ordinarily be excused as a tragic accident for an actor, Baldwin is also the film’s producer, and therefore heavily liable for safety on set. A set, as it also happened, had allegedly been plagued with safety problems.
First lesson of crisis communications: shut the hell up, you idiot. Alec, unfortunately for him, never got that memo.
The most famous, but least liked Baldwin brother, is in hiding after a weapons expert debunked his claim that the gun fired without him pulling the trigger. This new revelation is very damaging to his trial for shooting and killing his cinematographer.
Generally, it is in a defendant’s best interest to maintain a low profile and avoid interviews prior to a life-changing defence trial. Alec Baldwin, on the other hand, felt it was prudent to conduct some damage control and agreed to an interview with ABC in which he boldly claimed that he did not pull the trigger that tragic day on the set of his now-cancelled film Rust.
“I would never point a gun at someone on set and pull the trigger,” Alec Baldwin alleged. “I didn’t pull the trigger. I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off,” he said.
The interviewer was unconvinced by the actor’s crocodile tears and perplexed as to why he had the gun at all, given that the scene did not require it.
Baldwin hasn’t faced criminal charges, but is already facing two lawsuits relating to the incident. The film’s script supervisor and gaffer are sueing for alleged negligence, the latter alleging emotional stress from the shooting incident. This being Hollywood, after all, everyone is out to milk it for all they can.
The interview is assuredly not going to help Baldwin’s legal position.
A weapons expert conclusively determined that Alec Baldwin willingly lied in his interview. “A gun cannot fire a bullet without the trigger being pulled. The hammer needs to be fully cocked, you can’t fire a bullet by pulling the hammer back a little and then letting go of it,” she stated.
The weapon expert demonstrates in the video that you must absolutely pull the hammer all the way back to cock the gun in order for it to unlock the trigger and generate enough momentum to fire.
The interview also seems likely to have killed off any remaining sympathy for the actor. While Baldwin’s strident left-wing politics made him easy meat for some right-wing commentators, many others cautioned that he must be given the benefit of the doubt.
Then he went and opened his big yap.
“Accidents happen, and this could have been a tragic accident, but the fact that he has made this about him and his feelings, and even denies responsibility for shooting and killing Halyna, is revolting. I’m finished with this guy,” as one former fan put it.
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Somewhat tellingly, after reaction to the interview went pear-shaped, Baldwin and his wife deactivated their Twitter accounts. Their Instagram accounts remain open, but nothing has been posted since.
Lesson learned: when in doubt, shut the hell up.
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