After a round of criticism of Terry Moran of ABC News in the blogosphere for his part in White House briefing controversy, the veteran reporter engaged in an excellent if somewhat contentious on-air interview on Hugh Hewitt's radio program. In the course of the interview, Moran made two startling admissions. The first was that the media does have a reflexive anti-military bias:

There is, Hugh, I agree with you, a deep anti-military bias in the media. One that begins from the premise that the military must be lying, and that American projection of power around the world must be wrong. I think that that is a hangover from Vietnam, and I think it's very dangerous. That's different from the media doing it's job of challenging the exercise of power without fear or favor.

The second was that his brother runs the excellent blog Right Wing Nuthouse, who apparently got swamped for comment after the ABC reporter divulged this on air. Some of the e-mailers seem to have wanted Rick to take a pound of his brother's flesh on line and display it as a trophy. Rick's response is, I think, a reminder to us all that politics does not have to be a blood sport:

First of all, thank you for your emails and comments. Feedback like this is what separates blogs from the Mainstream Press. However, those expecting me to criticize or even critique what my brother does for ABC news will be disappointed.

I happen to know that, despite what you might think, my brother is a loyal American who loves this country as much as I do. Only good things can flow from that. His job is to ask questions of people in power. Only good things can flow from that. And if it upsets you about the way he does his job, don’t come to this site or email me. ...

In a family of 10 children (9 of whom are more liberal than I am) you can imagine some of the dinner table discussions – especially when we were coming of age in the 1970’s. But whatever knock-down, drag-em-out fights that ensued we never lost our love and respect for each other. Blood is thicker than politics. Don’t believe me? Try coming here and dissing my brother…you’ll get an earful back.

Amen, brother (figuratively speaking). And let's give Terry some credit -- he agreed to do Hugh's interview when he knew he would get challenged about that briefing, and remained remarkably open and honest, even if he did get a bit petty once when he misunderstood what Hugh meant about a criticism of White House correspondents in general. He also agreed to extend the interview twice on air despite other pressing commitments so he could talk directly to Hugh's callers. Even if I had a problem with Terry's reporting, it's clear he's a stand-up guy.

So is his brother Rick. Blood is and should be thicker than politics. Rick just gave us all a timely reminder of priorities. (via Michelle Malkin)

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» Blood is, and should be, thicker than politics from Hoodathunk
Captain's Quarters has a post up about the recent radio interview ABC's Terry Moran on Hugh Hewitt's show. One of the surprises he dropped was that his brother runs the conservative blog Right Wing Nuthouse. [Read More]

Tracked on May 20, 2005 10:45 AM