Central fact wrong

I obviously owe Defense Secretary William Cohen an apology for overstating his qualifications. You’re right; he never served in Vietnam. I relied on memory for this very tangential fact in my Salon magazine story about a backroom deal between Cohen and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to delay placing the Atlantic salmon on the endangered species list because of pressure from Maine’s aquaculture industry.

However, I believe the Bangor Daily News also owes me a correction. There were not one, but two internal federal agency memos alluding to this deal, which the nation’s top environmental lawyers charge is a violation of the Endangered Species Act. I may have relied on my faulty memory of articles read years ago about Cohen for a fact that was not central to my story. I wonder what the BDN’s excuse is for getting such a central fact wrong, since you clearly read my article within days of writing your editorial.

Perhaps the BDN also owes Salon an apology. If more of the nation’s small-town newspapers were doing their jobs and uncovering lawbreaking and dealmaking by government officials, then magazines like Salon wouldn’t have to do their work for them. Susan Zakin Tucson, Ariz.