March 21, 2012 7:07 PM

HK: DID NEWS STATION TERMINATE BRADDOCK OVER ABORTION POLITICS?

Down the middle journalist earns endorsement from Texans for Life president Kyleen Wright who tells station "...you have lost a treasure."

News junkies around the state were stunned today when word broke that Scott Braddock had been let go from Houston’s KROI (92.1 FM) an all-news radio station that had started up a few months ago.

Braddock had just completed a brief stint at the Texas State Network based in Austin after moving here from KRLD, the CBS radio affiliate in the Metroplex. KROI actively recruited Braddock to help with the startup.

Braddock is about as down the middle a journalist as you can get. Many of us in the political world have been interviewed on his programs. He is known for a no-nonsense get to the point style. He is a stark contrast to other radio types who live to inflame rather than inform.

As soon as word got out, Twitterville lit up with suppositions that Braddock had been canned due to his interview of Austin freelancer Carolyn Jones who’s painfully wrenching piece in Texas Observer about being forced to undergo a sonogram prior to having to terminate a pregnancy (her third sonogram that day). Her first two sonograms had revealed that she was carrying was tragically damaged.child and her physicians were recommending quick action.

It is not an encouraging moment when a journalist can be terminated for practicing journalism.

Braddock told QR, “I can’t say that’s why they did it but the reason they gave is horsest,”

Apparently, Braddock had filled in for a friend at the local Pacifica station, an audience funded station with a notoriously small audience. Braddock isn’t the first mainstream media person to fill in on the show.

In the course of the program, he replayed his interview with Jones.

Journalists generally consider interviews proprietary. After all, they usually provide the source material for books and articles in the future.

Subsequently, Braddock says he was told that his appearance on KPFT was a violation of his contract and was basis for termination.

Braddock isn’t buying it.

“The contract is on my desk, unsigned,” he said. “..and it’s a real stretch. I have been looking through it and there is nothing I did that would be a violation. Firing a person you asked to move here to help start your station and who had no history of problems doesn’t seem fair.”

“As controversial as this subject may be, I think I am pretty even handed. I simply let her tell her story.”

Shortly after the news broke on Twitter, Texans for Life president Kyleen Wright** sent a note to management at KROI expressing her disappointment in Braddock’s termination.

She wrote, “I am very disappointed to hear you have fired Scott Braddock. Scott has been a tireless promoter of the station, and a tireless promoter of news. More importantly, he is one of the few news guys I always make time for – he does his own homework and works very hard to be fair to both sides, a rare commodity in broadcasting today. That’s why people listen to him and follow him in spades on twitter. We all make mistakes, and I hope you will reconsider the asset Scott is and reassess your hasty decision. As it stands, you have lost a treasure.”

‘Nuff said.

Braddock's interview with Jones can be heard here.

By Harvey Kronberg