Gov. Scott McCallum made an on-air mistake following a live TV interview Tuesday that has left some calling the governor “not very nice.”
Following an interview with WJFW-TV reporter Matt Barrie, McCallum apparently thought his microphone was off and the cameras were no longer filming when he called the Rhinelander reporter a “dumb son-of-a-bitch” under his breath but loud enough to be picked up by the microphones.
The comment was caught on tape during the satellite interview with a number of TV stations and came after Barrie asked Gov. McCallum a long line of questions about cuts to shared revenue.
Following the interview Barrie thanked the governor for his time. Gov. McCallum said, “Thank you, thank you,” to Barrie but insulted him as he took out his ear piece.
Barrie had been asking McCallum about the $738,000 that will be cut from the statewide library fund, and the effects of the cuts on the Rhineland library.
“I was shocked,” Barrie said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It was one of those things where you know what you just heard but you are in shock. I’m just doing my job, serving the public, to inform them where their money is indeed going. To have the state’s top official call me a “dumb son of a bitch” just because of a line of questioning –I was offended,” he said.
According to the MSNBC, the governor called Barrie to apologize. “Okay, okay, so you got me frustrated. I’m sorry, Matt.” The governor added, “Matt, by the way, you know I didn’t know I was on TV, so I apologize. It’s not directed at you.”
A spokesman for the governor reportedly told media that McCallum regretted the remark to Barrie. His office refused to comment on the situation and staff did not return phone calls Wednesday.
The governor was upset, the aide said, because Barrie kept asking the effect of the budget cuts on the Rhinelander library.
The governor said he should not have made the comment but he was frustrated, tired and hungry and had not slept well the night before.
But Steve Kean, executive director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the comment was inexcusable.
“I think any time a public figure does something like that in a public place it is pretty inappropriate,” Kean said. “As the chief officer of the state, there should be a higher level of maturity.”
Kean said it is a common belief that McCallum is a “nice guy,” but that in the last few weeks he has been behaving poorly.
McCallum’s comment has been compared to President Bush’s comment about a New York Times reporter earlier this fall. Bush, who was not yet President, called the reporter a “major league asshole” when he thought the cameras were off.
