How Reporters Could Do Better

"Newsweek"'s Jonathan Darman visits Orange County, California, buys a copy of the Register, does a Google or two about the demographic and political changes that everyone in the world knows about, conducts one interview (at least, one that he produces a quote from), and writes, "Something is not right in Orange County, though at first it's hard to see." Among the findings of this relentless, sidewalk-pounding investigator:

On its front page, The Orange County Register announces a new arrival, John Yoo, distinguished visiting professor at Chapman University's School of Law. In blue enclaves, Yoo is reviled for his advocacy of torture during his time in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. At Berkeley, where he previously taught law, he clashed with "hippies, protesters and left-wing activists," he says. Orange County is different. Yoo loves the lifestyle, a "total change of pace."

But the Register itself, the nation's premier clearinghouse for Western conservative thinking, is losing money and readers.

Call the non sequitur busters! Irrespective of the kind of thinking that "Newsweek" and its parent, the Washington Post, are clearinghouses for, they're losing money and readers, too.