This is the month to throw some topwater plugs in your tackle box, and point your bow to a bay where the reefs are fresh and the trout are hungry.
Of all the amendments our forefathers made to one of the most gloriously profound documents ever written — our Constitution — none has been more valuable than the first. And of the five freedoms guaranteed in that amendment — speech, press, religious liberty, assembly and petition — none is of higher worth than freedom of the press, which is a close handmaiden of freedom of speech.
Considering the source, that’s probably not a surprising statement.
But just ponder the condition in which our country would find itself if wanna-be gumshoes in the media didn’t have the right to investigate our governmental leaders and agencies and report on what they found. Our government would be more corrupt than Barry Bonds’ baseball records.
In order for government to work properly, reporters must remain eternally vigilant.
That’s why many of us in the outdoor media were disappointed two years ago when the recently appointed secretary of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced he had hired a press secretary. He said all the right things — that he was creating a kinder, gentler and more user-friendly department, and he wanted to make things easier on the media — but we’ve dealt with enough press secretaries to know that making the media’s job easier is never the goal of a state agency.
In actuality, press secretaries are employed to provide filters between the media and those in governmental authority.
When you’re interviewing the head of a government agency, he might slip up and give you an honest answer rather than one that’s been washed sparkly white. Well-trained press secretaries, on the other hand, usually answer probing questions with an “I dunno.”
They always assure you they’ll get back to you with an answer, and the good ones always do. But it’s after they’ve consulted with their bosses — and the legal team, if necessary — and spun the answer in a way that makes their agency look just as peachy as a Georgia prom queen.
That’s proving true with the department.
Three weeks before this issue went to press, we discovered that Kenny Lang, DWF planning and real estate administrator, had been cited for hunting wild turkeys over bait. Since we had some time, we decided to sit on the story to see how the department would handle it.
On April 11, more than a week after Louisiana Sportsman learned of the charge, the department issued an innocuous press release announcing the citation of 34 hunters for targeting turkeys over bait. The 29th name on the list was Kenny M. Lang.
All press releases from the department include a note at the bottom informing the media whom to call to obtain more information. This one had the name of Lt. Col. Keith LaCaze, whom we’ve interviewed numerous times in the past to get more details about arrests or citations.
“I haven’t discussed with (press secretary) Bo (Boehringer) how much the department wants to release on this,” is all we could get from LaCaze.
Why should that be an issue at all? Why is Lang afforded any more rights than any other citizen who gets cited by enforcement agents? Since he works for the government agency responsible for managing our fish and game resources, shouldn’t he be held to an even higher standard? At the very least, he shouldn’t be protected.
Secretary Landreneau, the department isn’t a place for spin doctors. The hunters and anglers of this state deserve better.
