Bunch of savages in the OC

Not everyone in Orange County is a rich white racist, but I'd wager that every rich white racist in Orange County passes his weekend at OCregister.com. Case in point: Clicking through my RSS – gotta keep up with our neighbors to the south – I read a long-enough-for-the-Register blurb about a stabbing in Fullerton. Then I scrolled down to the comments section, where I found the doozy posted above.

Of course, it didn't come as a shock; I read Register comments half hoping to find gems like that. The paper teeters precariously between desperately needing the traffic generated by user comments and trying to uphold some last shred of journalistic dignity. (If you read the comments on their illegal immigration stories, you'll see just how well that's working out.) Online rants aren't generally newsworthy, but this one helps illustrate the compromises our local papers are making as their circulations decline and they turn to the web for revenue.

The Register's well aware of their problem, too. A former Freedom Communications intern told me the other day that, when not assisting with stories, interns at the Reg are charged with expunging racist, libelous, and otherwise unsavory comments from their pages.

Better than making coffee runs, I guess.