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Alec Baldwin exits Emmys after Fox takes out Rupert Murdoch joke

By April MacIntyre Sep 18, 2011, 23:20 GMT

08/13/2011 - Alec Baldwin - 7th Annual East Hampton Library Authors Night on August 13, 2011 - East Hampton Library - East Hampton, NY, USA © Jakes Van Der Watt / PR Photos

Alec Baldwin was frosted that FOX removed a planned joke written into tonight's Emmy telecast according to Deadline.com.

Baldwin, a Democrat long critical of FOX news, has pulled out of tonight’s Emmy telecast after a joke about News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch was cut from a segment that he had recorded to open the broadcast.

On September 15, Baldwin tweeted this: "I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me NewsCorp may cut the funniest line. #NewsCorphumorlessaswellascorrupt"

According to Deadline, FOX was uncomfortable with a joke written and delivered "in poor taste" that Baldwin made that had to do with Murdoch and the much-publicized phone-hacking scandal, and they had it cut from Baldwin’s script.

Baldwin today tweeted “If I were enmeshed in a scandal where I hacked phones of families of innocent crime victims purely 4 profit, I'd want that 2 go away, 2.
2 hours ago," and then, "I understand NewsCorp killing that joke..”