Alec Baldwin Speaks Out on the View

The View is a women's show that disusses current issues with a womens perspective. In many cases this serves to level the playing field for women in a world that is still dominated by men in many ways. On this segment of The View, Alec Baldwin discusses his very public and bitter divorce as well as his new book on this subject. He also appeared on 20/20 with Barbara Walters last week discussing his divorce and his new book. The book is titled "A Promise To Ourselves: A Journey Through Fatherhood & Divorce".

Baldwin states that lawyers have generated countless documents and upwards to 3 milion in legal fees during the course of his divorce. In his book Baldwin discusses how divorce attorneys control legal proceedings and waste time and money by keeping their case tied up in the courts as long as possible. He feels that attorney's bad behavior freqently goes unsanctioned and judges seem to be afraid of the attorneys. The major point of the book is that the system in general needs to undergo significant change. Something need to be done to better serve the fathers and children of divorcing families, as they are they ones that usually get the shaft. Fathers in some cases are the better parent and they need to have their day in court in a fair and equal environment. Good parenting is not exclusive to women.

Alec Baldwin's book examines what it is like for the non-custodial parent. In his case he was subjected to a series of unreasonable and unfair demands while he had to fight to keep from suffering from "Parental Alienation". Parental Alienation Syndrom is a behavior that exists when the child rejects the non custodial parent which can be a direct result of the custodial parent sabatoging the Non-Custodial parent's relationship with the child . Frequently the child is coerced into making reports of alleged abuse and the non-custodial parent is forced back into court to address some percieved wrong doing to further hamper the relationship

He claims that during a visitation with his daughter, his attempts to discipline his child were reported to be abuse. He feels that the child was "coached" by the mother to dipict the father as abusive when he was only metting out very necessary discipline. This coaching or influencing a child is the main tool in Parental Alienation. In reality Parental Alienation can start before the divorce and in many cases this behavior is one of the mitigating factors in a divorce. Things are further complicated by the attorneys continued judicial harrassment of the target parent. In many cases the better parent hasn't the money, time, or tools to continue their fight in court and the better parent ends up having to give up and walk away.

The father (or non-custodial parent) undergoes financial and emotional strain that some never seem to recover from. Alec Baldwin himself discusses his thoughts of suicide. This type of defeat can leave the target parent with an almost Post Traumatic Stress that takes years to recover from. Baldwin is very beleivable in his interview and he definately makes a case for equal treament for fathers in divorce. It is very curious that we haven't heard from Kim Bassinger on this subject and while the court implemented a gag order on any discussion of the child in the media, Kim herself has made no rebuttal to Alec's allegations of being denied his parental rights.. Ms. Bassinger, speak into the mic please.