This hasn’t been a good year so far for Orange County Register opinion editor Brian Calle. The year began with his section becoming the sexist laughingstock of America after publishing an editorial arguing cheerleaders shouldn’t cry about low pay because, “Being a cheerleader for a pro team obviously has fringe benefits lacking at other jobs, such as working closely with [millionaire] players].” Calle not only retracted the unsigned editorial, but also apologized—whoopsie doodle!
But Calle hasn’t even bothered with his section’s latest gaffe. Last Tuesday, the Register published an editorial online and in its print edition blasting Assemblymember Don Wagner’s decision to run against State Senator John Moorlach, calling Wagner’s decision “Gratuitous, Harmful” in the headline, and continuing with the insults from there.
Only problem? Wagner isn’t running against Moorlach. Hell, he’s not running for anything this year. Whoopsie doodle!
The editorial published even though Moorlach himself posted March 12 on Facebook that he was running against just one opponent, a Democrat. The editorial published even though the filing deadline for all 2016 OC races was March 11—four days before the Reg’s anti-Wagner editorial. Nevertheless, the unsigned piece appeared in the dead-tree edition of the Reg and also appeared online until getting scrubbed completely from its website at 2 a.m. the following day. Now, the original link leads to the paper’s news section, with no explanation offered whatsoever for the disappearance. How do we know this? Because the almighty Wayback Machine still has the original editorial in its omniscient archives.
Calle didn’t respond to an email for comment. But I gotta say, Brian: Do your pinche job, man. And to Reg publisher Rich Mirman: You gonna stand for this shit?
