This is the worst defense of nepotism I've ever seen. Some Beltway insider named Charlie Brown is mad that Glenn Greenwald is criticizing his friend, Mort Halperin, a legendary civil libertarian turned architect of the FISA compromise, as well as the father of DC journalist Mark Halperin. It starts with a quote from Glenn noting that the Halperin family is intertwined in policy and journalistic circles.
Several people have emailed to complain - correctly - that I was remiss in failing to note that Mort Halperin is the father of the incomparablyexecrable Mark Halperin, formerly of ABC News and now of Time. My apologies for the oversight. If there is any system more nepotistic and incestuous than our Beltway political and media institutions, I don't know what it is.
So Greenwald would have us believe that the father should be held accountable for the supposed sins of the son, and vice versa, and that Mark Halperin's success is based entirely on his "famous" father. I don't know Mark Halperin. I have no idea how he got his first job in Washington. But I'm guessing that his subsequent success just might be based on his own achievements and not because of his dad.
I suppose it's possible that Mark Halperin just randomly succeeded as a famous insider DC journalist who constantly appears on television because of his close connections to various political elites, but I'm going to guess that it might have had something to do with his famous insider father, Mort Halperin, and Mort's close connections to various elites.
STATE BLOGS
