Alec Baldwin gets hosed; Martin Bashir survives

I’ve already declared my disgust with two MSNBC hosts, Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir.

Baldwin needed to get fired for his hideous outburst against a photographer in which he yelled a homophobic slur against the man. It was disgraceful, disgusting and thoroughly degrading. MSNBC decided to ax his 9 p.m. (CST) show that aired each Friday. So long, Alec.

Then he fired back at the network for what he said is uneven treatment of his transgression and that of Martin Bashir, another MSNBC talking head.

Bashir did something that also was vile and disgusting. While offering a comment one afternoon on his show, he referred to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a “world-class idiot,” and then said she should be degraded with feces and urine. Bashir challenged Palin’s assertion that the national debt is akin to slavery; he made some point about the kind of torture and degradation that slaves endured, which included being soiled with human feces and urine.

Bashir went on the air shortly after his hideous rant and apologized. Palin said she accepted his apology.

He’s still offering his commentary … on the air.

Baldwin said the network is being unfair because it fired him for his spontaneous outburst, which occurred off camera, while keeping Bashir on the job for reciting a scripted critique of a one-time elected official.

Doesn’t Baldwin have a point here? Martin Bashir’s ghastly rant, it could be argued, was more egregious, given that it was a pre-meditated act.

Why, then, aren’t both men banished from the same network?