Intolerable.

I’ll make this simple, and get right to the point: any Cabinet member who threatens a reporter with physical violence for doing the job journalists are supposed to do should be fired. No exceptions. Moreover, that should be obvious and beyond debate.

Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, didn’t like a question he was asked by Colorado Springs Gazette reporter Dave Philipps. The investigative reporter had tried to reach Salazar for months through his press secretary seeking a comment on a story Philipps had written about how a Colorado man with business connections to Salazar had been sold hundreds of federally protected wild horses that have subsequently vanished. The man is under investigation, and one of his businesses is slaughtering horses, not that any of this is germane to how Salazar treated Phillipps.  When Philipps began asking Salazar about the program and possible personal ties he had to the wild horse buyer now under investigation, Salazar abruptly ended the interview. He then pushed The Gazette’s camera aside, got nose to nose with the reporter, and said, pointing, “Don’t you ever…you know what, you do that again… I’ll punch you out.”

Phillipps wasn’t rude or disrespectful to the Secretary. The question wasn’t about his adored dead wife, his child that was horribly mangled in a wood-chipper or rumors that he was in a romantic relationship with a Bighorn sheep. It involved a legitimate issue, and a previously published story. The time-honored response to questions an official doesn’t care to address is “I have no comment on that at this time,” not “I’ll punch you out.”

Indeed, Salazar’s response in not an acceptable response to any reporter’s question, ever. It represents intimidation and stifling of First Amendment rights by government leaders on an official level, and instability, arrogance and poor judgment on the personal level. Salazar represents a government agency, and the image he has put forth for the agency is that of a thug. He represents the President of the United States, his boss, and the attitude he displayed by his words is “cross us and we’ll hurt you.” He represents the United States of America, and there is little difference between threatening violence against a journalist and threatening to lock him up. Apologies, after the fact, don’t erase the message, the incident or its import. A member of the President’s Cabinet has threatened a reporter for reporting—“I’m sorry” or “I didn’t mean it” does not end the threat.

Here is what does end the threat: firing Salazar. Yes, I know that as long as the incompetent Eric Holder remains Attorney General a prima facie case can be made that President Obama will not rouse himself to fire anyone, but this shouldn’t be a judgment call. It should be automatic. If the President has proper dedication to core Constitutional principles, he demonstrates that they take precedence over consideration for Ken Salazar.  A high-ranking corporate officer who threatened to punch out a stockholder for asking a tough question should and probably would be fired. A bank VP who threatened to punch out a depositor would be fired. A principal who threatened to punch out a student for asking a question would be fired. I’m assuming management competence in all of these hypotheticals, by the way.  I recognize that this is not always applicable to Washington, D.C.

A representative of the Administration who threatens reporters cannot be trusted, and shouldn’t be tolerated. The higher he is on the organizational chart, the more important this is, because the more damaging the conduct is. Our government officials should not threaten individuals and institutions engaged in exercising their First Amendment rights, and if they do, they should cease to be government officials.

There is a coda to this as well. If the news media and its reporters and leaders do not stand with Phillipps and insist that this incident be taken seriously, they are cringing, ignorant, irresponsible fools unworthy of being entrusted with important function a free press must serve in a democracy. So far, it appears that Salazar won’t be properly held to account, either by the President or journalists. The only statement forthcoming has been that he “regrets the incident.”

Not enough.

UPDATE: Salazar called the reporter and apologized after the Gazette protested. It’s still not good enough. He should be fired. Nothing else will send the right message, to this high official and others.