My brother, Terry Moran, was suspended by ABC News for posting some inflammatory comments about Donald Trump and Stephen Miller early Sunday morning. 

I've been writing on the internet for almost 25 years. Except for a time when I was just getting started (for a few years, I went by the nom de plume "Superhawk"), I have used my real name, Rick Moran.

I am proud of that name. And I am proud of the family that bears that name. My father, son of an Irish immigrant, fought as a paratrooper in World War II and went on to work for Sears Roebuck after the war as a copywriter. A young man on the make, he worked at Sears for more than 30 years, rising to the very top of the executive ladder. 

Along the path to success, he and my mother managed to raise ten children. He was able to put every one of us through college, a feat not possible today except for the very wealthy. We were all nourished by a huge library that filled our minds with everything from the great works of the Enlightenment to every issue of Mad Magazine ever published.

There were the usual family fights and dinner table shouting matches over politics. My father was an FDR Democrat and almost all of my family ended up on the left, some farther left than others. But those arguments only brought us closer together and allowed us to accept and understand other points of view.

My father, realizing he had raised a conservative apostate, gave me a copy of Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind" soon after I graduated from college, and I began a 50-year journey to conservative enlightenment. As the years passed, most of my brothers and sisters moderated their views, as did I. It wasn't surprising, given the boisterous intellectual environment we were raised in and the constant self-examination all of us did of our views, perpetually challenging both conventional wisdom and our own assumptions of what was true.

I feel it's essential to preface my critique and defense of my brother with some family background, as understanding who Terry is and where he came from humanizes him. It also gives important context to where he's coming from as far as his role as a journalist and, more importantly, the title of "national media star."

Terry's incendiary tweet about Trump and Miller has been dissected by others more qualified than I, including noted media critic Chris Cillizza. The writer gave a good piece of advice to anyone who writes for a living.

"If ever you are on social media and it is past midnight and you think to yourself, 'I really need to get this off my chest,' here’s my advice: Slam your laptop shut. Or throw your phone across the room." Cillizza wrote on his Substack.

The X platform does not lend itself to serious discourse. Rather, it's an abomination, a bastardization of the free exchange of ideas. It's the opposite of thoughtful and has coarsened the dialogue in this country beyond measure. 

I could never get the hang of "tweeting." I'm just clearing my throat at 120 characters, and besides, the mindless chatter is annoying as hell.

Terry makes his living as a journalist. His presence on X is mandatory. Terry obviously believes he can separate his role as a journalist from his right as a private citizen to express his views in an open forum.

Is he right?

Terry and I rarely see eye to eye on anything, although as he gets older, he gets a little more conservative, and as I grow older, I get a little more liberal. 

If we live long enough, we'll probably start agreeing on everything.

My older brother, Jim (he'd say "wiser"), in an exchange of comments on Facebook, said there's a line between Terry's online presence as a "national media star" and his role as a journalist.

Jim wrote: "But Terry was writing as a private citizen - nowhere on that post does he invoke ABC or his role as a journalist. In his on-air reporting, he has the obligation to be even-handed; as an individual citizen, he has no such constraint."

I replied: "Thirty or forty years ago I would agree with you. Terry is more than a journalist and ABC is more than a media company. Today, the "news" is a political weapon used by both sides, and Terry, willing or not, is a warrior. You simply can't separate Terry's on air reporting and his off air musings. It's not fair. But that's what we have."

That's the essence of the argument. The "media" has transcended such mundane characterizations as "news" and has become a different entity, a hybrid creation of the information age. Not quite "fact" and not quite "fable," this hybrid creation is peopled by journalist-celebrities whose function exceeds the role of "reporter" to one of "national sage," dispensing knowledge and wisdom to the masses.

Is it "truth"? I doubt very much that there is a media company in business today that doesn't display a bias in how the news is reported. If they didn't, they'd either be a specialty publication or constantly on the cusp of going under. Readers, viewers, and listeners have become extremely discerning about what viewpoint is being presented as "true" and will watch or listen accordingly.

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My brother Terry is not a flaming leftist. The idea that he's a Communist is laughable (don't get me started about misusing and misdefining the term "Communism). If he ever wants to define his personal politics, he can do it himself. He's a big boy and doesn't need me dissecting his ideology (or lack of it) for anyone else.

I'm not defending what Terry said. I don't possess the insight to peer into the souls of men and glean their intent or their personal feelings. But I stand with him, shoulder to shoulder, against those who besmirch his reputation for honesty and integrity. I know the mettle of the man being smeared by lesser creatures on the internet. I watched him grow from a toddler into one of the finest reporters of this or any generation. He has an uncanny knack for getting to the heart of a story and telling it clearly. That's what a reporter living in any age is supposed to do. 

I am proud to call him my brother. And, regardless of our disagreements about this and many other issues, I love him and will always love him.

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