I recently wrote a post questioning whether or not the Orange County Register is still a Libertarian newspaper. The short answer is no, it is not.
The O.C. Register endorsed Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, and Van Tran in the November elections. Those candidates were not remotely Libertarian in their outlook.
And the O.C. Register declined to endorse Prop. 19 – a gross slap to Libertarian voters! Even worse, I took a look at their Op-Ed page just now – and there was no post about the vote yesterday by the O.C. Supervisors to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of Orange County. Fumble!
But the O.C. Register Op-Ed page does feature a post today about why we should honor the Pilgrims. Are you kidding? The Euro invasion of the U.S. led to mass genocide of the Native Americans! Why the Hell should we honor that?
Yesterday I took the O.C. Register’s political reporter, Martin Wisckol, to task for giving free advertising on his blog to the Red County and the Liberal OC Blogs. His rationale is that they are the County’s leading Republican and Democratic blogs. So what? Even if that were true, how does this serve Libertarians, other third-party voters, and Decline to State voters? It doesn’t!
To make matters worse for the O.C. Register, which only recently came out of bankruptcy, County demographic trends are NOT looking good for them at all.
Republican voter registration has fallen in Orange County to 43%. And, according to the New York Times, at the end of 2009, nearly 45 percent of the county’s residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to county officials. Whites now make up only 45 percent of the population; this county is teeming with Hispanics, as well as Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese families. Its percentage of foreign-born residents jumped to 30 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1970, and visits to some of its corners can feel like a trip to a foreign land.
The O.C. Register is headquartered in Santa Ana, however I doubt that they sell many newspapers here. And it is only going to get worse for them as time goes on. Newspapers in general are a dying breed. Their news is old the minute it hits your driveway. And they waited too long to transition to the Internet.
So why risk antagonizing close to a third of the voters? Statewide, the GOP is down to 31% of voter registration. Decline to state voters are over 20% of the electorate now. The Republicans just lost EVERY SINGLE statewide race, as Kamala Harris finally beat out Stephen Cooley today, for State Attorney General. Yet the Register is now not much more than a mouthpiece for the fading GOP. And of course Wisckol is busy kissing both red and blue partisan butts, while forgetting the rest of the voters.
What about Orange County’s Latino residents? Why should they read a newspaper that caters to teabaggers? They won’t – and their population is growing while white residents are busy dying or moving out of state. In all, this bodes ill for the once-venerable O.C. Register.
It should be noted by the way that Wisckol takes great pleasure in ripping Latino community leaders and politicians. Enjoy that while it lasts Wisckol. Your newspaper will be bankrupt again, before too long, and you will be out of a job. Then what? Maybe your red and blue blogger pals will toss you a lifeline. Mark my words, this guy is going to end up working at the Voice of OC blog before long.
The Orange County Register newspaper presents the right wing view thereby excluding all other views. Democratic, progressive voters are equally dissatisfied and choose not to support this newspaper.
Yeah Art, just cuz Martie “pals around” with Dan and Chris doesn’t make the rag bi-partisan. It’s a red Reep rag all ’round, the Reg.
GG voter.
Do you remember the LA Times Orange County edtions?
That was your chance to support a local newspaper with a bias to the left.
Obviously OC Democrats chose not to support that edition which led to its departure