While reading the various opinion writers in today’s “Opinion” section of the Wheeling News-Register, the timeliness of the columnists kept jumping out at me. Delegate Tim Armstead, for instance, discussed Trump’s tax plan as though it was seriously being considered. It’s not – both the Senate and the House have had their own plans for at least a week. I checked: Armstead’s opinion piece was released on November 9. In Betsy McCaughey’s column referencing Chuck Shumer, weeks-old references to political events read like they happened yesterday. For McCaughey, they did happen yesterday – her column was first printed on November 8.

Here then is a complete list of the writers/columnists in today’s (November 19) opinion section of the Wheeling News-Register with the date their column was first published. (Reverend Cummings’ and Mike Myer’s pieces are excluded because their columns did not appear elsewhere.)

• A week ago last Wednesday (November 8): Betsy McCaughey

• A week ago last Thursday (November 9): Tim Armstead

• A week ago last Friday (November 10): Adriana Cohen

• A week ago yesterday (November 11): Mark Shields

• Last Monday (November 13): Jonah Goldberg and Kathleen Parker

• Last Wednesday (November 15): Michele Malkin and Connie Schultz

As I’ve noted in a number of posts labeled “yesterday’s news tomorrow” (see here, for instance), there is never any real news for the News-Register on Sunday regardless of what happens in the world. For the News-Register, the news section of the Sunday paper is completed on Friday with a sports editor adding the necessary Saturday scores. And now it’s obvious that the opinion section is put together mid-week at the latest.

Yes, it’s another reason they deserve to be called a “newspaper.”