The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at The Wall Street Journal written by the editor, James Taranto.
Other Than That, the Story Was Accurate
“An earlier version of this article, relying on information supplied by Natasha Gregson Wagner, inaccurately reported Ms. Gregson Wagner’s age. She is 45, not 46. She did not realize she was 45 until her husband read this article and alerted her to the mistake.”—New York Times, March 19
Worst Appeals to Authority
“Democrats insist there’s virtually no chance that [Hillary] Clinton will be indicted over her server. The candidate has said repeatedly that no laws were broken, and that classified information was never sent over the server. Asked about an indictment at the last Democratic debate, Clinton responded: ‘That’s not going to happen.’ ”—Ben Kamisar, TheHill.com, March 19
Two Articles in One!
- “Cubans Pack the Streets for a Glimpse of President Obama”—headline, New York Times, March 20
- “Still, between the rain and the muscular security presence throughout Havana after the arrest of dozens of dissidents Sunday morning, the arrival brought out little of the excitement and pride that many Cubans have expressed at having an American president—and better yet, this president—in their midst. In Old Havana, many of the old streets were empty during Mr. Obama’s tour.”—same article
Bottom Story of the Day
“Thirteen months after he resigned the Oregon governorship, John Kitzhaber is going public again. Kitzhaber said he will launch a Facebook page that he says will give him an opportunity to talk about public issues.”—Jeff Mapes, Oregon Public Broadcasting website, March 18
There Goes the Neighborhood
David Brooks [token conservative (purportedly)] of the New York Times has made up his mind about Donald Trump: “No, not Trump, not ever.” But he is beginning to have second thoughts about his view of the American electorate:
Many in the media, especially me, did not understand how [voters] would express their alienation. We expected Trump to fizzle because we were not socially intermingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough. For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country.
Believe it or not, Media Matters noticed that almost eight years ago. From an item dated June 3, 2008:
During the 2 p.m. ET hour of the June 2 edition of MSNBC Live, discussing Barack Obama’s presidential campaign with CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood, New York Times columnist David Brooks asserted that “less educated” and “downscale” people “look at Obama, and they don’t see anything.” He added: “Obama’s problem is he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who could go into an Applebee’s salad bar, and [have] people think he fits in naturally there.” Media Matters for America contacted the consumer relations department at Applebee’s, which confirmed that Applebee’s restaurants do not have salad bars.
If you have to call the customer-relations department, you probably don’t spend much time at Applebee’s either. Of course, now there’s a reason not to: You might end up having to intermingle with David Brooks.
For more “Best of the Web” from The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto click here.
