Rose posed the question, first discussing issues of fame and personal privacy, then getting at the heart of the matter. Appropriate for this setting.

Rose: “When you have an incident like you did, is it because you get upset somebody’s invading your privacy?”

Baldwin: “The guy almost hit me with a camera.”

Rose: “What happened?”

Baldwin: “There was a person in front of me, and I was blocking him and he lunged and he almost hit me in the teeth with the lens of the camera. And I pushed him away.”

Daily News photographer Marcos Santos tells it differently, and has filed an assault charge.

Baldwin and his “Rome” co-star Penelope Cruz went on to talk about the challenges of fame, a subplot in the Woody Allen movie. Baldwin says social media — which he used multiple times yesterday defending himself — exacerbates the problem.

“You have your political opposition and they get on the internet, and within 30 minutes the misrepresentation of the story is out there,” said Baldwin. “You go on Twitter or Fox Nation says, ‘Baldwin punches photographer.’ No true.”

Despite starring in a show on NBC, Baldwin has recently criticized “Today” for its coverage of him and his fiancee.

The network morning shows all reported the incident. “Today” and “GMA” did not use any of Baldwin’s interview with Rose, choosing a statement from his publicist Matthew Hiltzik instead. “CBS This Morning,” which Rose hosts, excerpted it at length.

Video after the jump…

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“Katie said that it sometimes seems as if sexism is tolerated more than racism in the U.S.,” Hiltzik says, “but that was turned into a quote about sexism being more prevalent than racism.”

“The focus should be on CBS News and its anchor’s middle east coverage and not on a middle east reporter’s coverage of the CBS News anchor,” Hiltzik added.

As for Couric’s coverage, the Evening News led with back-to-back interviews Couric conducted with Sen. Barack Obama in Jordan and Sen. John McCain, who was in New Hampshire. The segment centered around the troop surge: Obama’s continued opposition to it, and McCain’s defense of it.

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