Most people think the reporters or columnists for newspapers write the headlines associated with the news stories or columns that carry a reporter or columnist’s byline. That isn’t true at larger papers, as copy editors will write a headline that fits the space and captures the essence of the story or the column.
Some recent headlines in the Register’s editorial pages.
From Sunday’s Mark Steyn Column: Guns and God? Hell Yes! (thought the column lacks information on what sort of firearm Jesus Christ would carry and if the ammunition would be hollow points or not).
From Today’s editorial page, Robert Novak’s column: “Rethinking Obama as a Uniter” (like that “uniter” title worked so well for President Bush?)
and
Sallie James of the Cato Institute: “Hurting the rich important to Obama.”
To the powers that be running these pages for the Register; Orange County has the second highest concentration of Democrats in the state, behind Los Angeles, tied with San Diego and ahead of San Francisco. Thta’s right; about 450,000 of us.ÂÂ
Would it be possible to have one liberal columnist? Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Ariana Huffington, someone? Even the LA Times runs John Goldberg and the New York Times runs Bill Kristol.ÂÂ
I realize the paper’s legacy in Libertarism is more closely aligned with conservativism than liberalism, but there are only 80,000 registered Libertarians in the state.ÂÂ
How many other readers of this blog also read the Register butwould be more likely to subscribe if there were a liberal columnist in their pages? PLease tell me so in the comments section below.
That’s right, Dan, our headline guys just follow the memos from Homeland Security. I guess we missed the ones about the Iraq war, the Bush administration’s assaults on civil liberties, the drug war and immigration, but we’ll try to do better next time. (Aren’t those libertarian positions consistent with some liberal ones? Oh, never mind — you are stuck completely in a Republican vs. Democrat view of the world, and you can’t understand those of us who dislike both major parties.) Of course, I do have a copy of a secret memo from the local unions telling you what to write, but I promise not to share it with anyone. 🙂
They already have Yvette Cabrera Dan. That’s all most people can take.
Oh Steve, it was a fun piece of art to run. My criticism is not directed at folks like you, Alan or Mark. But in the selection of people like Mark Steyn, Robert Novak, and George Will. How about some balance there? Why not run Paul Krugman, a Princeton economist?
And please send me that memo; I must have missed mine (but you’ll have to remember, my Dad was union and I have no ill feelings towards unions).
Allan — Yvette is a columnist for the news pages; Frank Mickadeit’s “rightyness” cancels her “Leftiness” out.
The Register op-ed page isn’t really that much worse than the neocon line-up at the LATIMES now, and in many cases like the war in error and civil liberties, Greenhut’s been on the same side as many progressives, and made a lot more sense than either major political party.
What is more pathetic about the Register is the way they manipulate the news. Given a choice between multiple wire service stories, they will always choose the one that is most slanted, and if one isn’t slanted enough, they’ll do a mash-up and attribute it to some catch-all like wire service stories.
Orange County residents are consistently misinformed if they rely on the Register for information.
There’s also their lack of any knowledge of science, business, or economics that makes their comments about many subjects laughable.
I used to subscribe for the local news, but they do such a crappy job on that now with their staff cutbacks and the lack of experience of their reporters that there’s really no reason to pay for this crap.
The post concerns national columnists for the editorial pages, not the Register’s news pages.
My desire is to see the Register add a pure lefty syndicated columnist in a sea of hard right wingers like Mike Steyn.
Steve is correct; much of his coverage does question and attack Republican/Conservative talking points on the war or the economy. Though both Mark L and Alan B are a tad more right-leaning.
I get four newspapers every morning: The Register, the LA Times, the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. Between all of them, I get multiple sources of information and will often read the story from 4 different viewpoints. That said, I get Paul Krugman’s columns in the NY Times. The only difference on the editorial pages of all four papers is that only the Regiter lacks a true alternative voice. The NY Times rnus Kristol; the LA Times runs Goldberg. The Wall Street Journal is actually the most diverse of the lot. But no liberal columnist for the Register. To that i say, why not?
I know you’re kidding, Dan, and the artwork is fun. That’s why I put the smiley face at the end of my comment. The publishers believe (rightly, in my mind) that the editorial pages are the place to preach our views. Critics get their say in letters to the editor and reader rebuttals. We don’t get that many pages, after all, and liberal views aren’t all that hard to come by in the media!
A boy can dream Steve 😉