After high school, he served in the U.S. Army for two years. Salazar attended the Texas Western College, graduating in 1954 with a degree in journalism. He obtained a job as an investigative journalist at the now-defunct "El Paso Herald-Post"; at one point he posed as a vagrant to get arrested while he investigated the poor treatment of prisoners in the El Paso jail. After his tenure at the "Herald-Post," Salazar worked at several California newspapers, including the "Santa Rosa Press Democrat".