Working at the Washington Examiner, the view through my office window is usually of an urban alley behind a 16th Street club two blocks north of the White House. To my left, through a glass wall, I normally see reporters and editors busy at desks in rows stretching down the newsroom toward 15th Street.

It’s not like that these days. The newsroom is empty and the lights are off. Instead, at a makeshift desk on the second floor of my house several miles away, my view is out over suburban backyards, where spring flowers bloom and children play on swingsets. There are, then, some small compensations for social distancing.