On Election Day, after an Obama rally in Colorado, reporter Dave Philipps intercepted Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for a few questions. He asked two puffy ones about Salazar’s whirlwind of campaign stops and what he’d cite as his big accomplishment in this term. (Ooh, you’re so busy! What’s your favorite thing you ever did?) Then he asked about the BLM’s wild horse program, specifically about Tom Davis.
Davis is a Colorado man who talks about plans to set up slaughterhouses for horses – and who has also bought hundreds of wild horses from the BLM, saying he’d find them good homes. But there’s no documentation that he’s actually done that, and the BLM hasn’t pushed him for proof. It’s illegal to slaughter wild horses from public lands. (And even people who think there’s a place for a horse slaughter industry usually want to see regulation and transparency.)
Salazar responded with fairly standard remarks about how there are huge issues with wild horses on the public domain, and how Interior is working very very diligently to resolve them.
Philipps, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, has been following controversies about wild horses for some time. In fact most searches for serious stories on this subject bring up stories by Philipps. The big ProPublica piece about the horses Davis bought? By Philipps. I’ve just read a story in High Country News focusing on the possibilities of darting wild mares with birth control, and looking at groups of private citizens doing this on a small scale. Hey, it’s by Philipps.
After ending the questioning, Salazar went close to Philipps, quietly furious. There’s audio of this encounter, but it’s terrible audio. The Gazettetranscribes it: “You know what – you ever do that – this is an Obama – you know what, you do that to me again, and I’ll punch you out, okay?” Salazar says, “…don’t ever, ever – you set me up, you know?”
“You’re here as a public figure,” protests Philipps. “No, I’m here for President Obama, I’m talking about the campaign,” says Salazar. “You want to talk to me about a public policy issue, you can do that at another time and another place.”
“In my defense, I tried multiple times through your press secretary – and you never got back to me,” says Philipps. The Gazette says Philipps had been trying for months to talk to Salazar.
Heck, he was probably just trying to spare Philipps a punching.
Salazar at press conference in 2009. Photo: Tami A. Heilemann for the DOI.
The Gazette sat on the story and audio, hoping Salazar would agree to an interview. Monday a wild-horse advocacy group released the recording, and Salazar’s office starting getting calls asking for comment. His press office said, “The Secretary regrets the exchange.”
Not a good apology. In fact, not an apology. Impersonal, takes no responsibility.
That was Tuesday. There was more publicity about the incident and gosh, people were quite critical. Wednesday, Salazar called Philipps. “I want you to hear me loud and clear. I shouldn’t have said that,” said Salazar. “To tell the truth, the wild horse issue has been the most difficult issue we have dealt with. We have had hundreds of meetings on it and there are still a lot of problems.” Really!
Salazar said he would give Philipps an interview on the wild-horse issue. He also put it in writing, sending Philipps a letter saying, “I apologize and regret the statement I made to you in Fountain, Co.” (I would punctuate this differently, but it’s clear.) He repeated his offer to discuss the BLM’s Horse and Burro program.
Eh. The first apology wasn’t one. The second, the phone call, sounds truculent. “I want you to hear me loud and clear”? LISTEN UP, I’M DOING THE RIGHT THING. The written one is a bit better and actually uses the word apologize. But it evades the matter of what the statement was. Punching was mentioned, as I recall.
Wild horses at the Nevada Test Site, not wishing to be bothered with your questions.
I see Salazar’s point. He was there to make nice for Obama (and video shows him doing a great job, hugging, chatting, clapping people on the back), not to be asked surprise questions about the accursed horse and burro program. I see Philipps’s point. If the Interior Department won’t respond to polite requests through the proper channels, what’s left but improper channels?
Poor Ken Salazar, bedeviled on all sides by ranchers, and horse lovers, and environmentalists, and reporters on top of all that. Poor Dave Phillips, who can’t get a straight answer – or any answer – from anybody, and is being threatened by an angry Cabinet member.
So they each have a point, but so do we as members of the public. Our government has to talk to the press, even though they may find the task loathsome. And considering a free press as representative of a free people, please don’t tell us you’re going to punch us.
Hear, hear!
The final letter was good. What had to be done to extract it was not. We also need to see if he follows up and the interview happens in a timely manner. That is what it would take to make the apology complete.
(As an aside, there is virtually no chance that Davis was able “to find good homes” for those horses. I don’t know how easy it is to get access to the Mexican slaughter plants, but a look there would probably tell the tale.)