The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Time for Bed
From an Associated Press report on a new survey of college students:
While college campuses are often thought to be hotbeds of radical politics, only 3 percent of the survey respondents described their political leanings as far-left, and only 2 percent as far-right. More students, 46 percent, regarded their political beliefs as middle-of-the-road, while 28 percent saw themselves as liberal and 21 percent conservative.
Trouble is, this survey is of incoming freshmen, so it tells us nothing about whether college campuses are “hotbeds of radical politics.” The good news is that high schools may not be.
Better Late Than Never
Today’s New York Times carries a correction that some may view as a bit overdue:
An article on Jan. 20, 1853, recounting the story of Solomon Northup, whose memoir “12 Years a Slave” became a movie 160 years later that won the best picture Oscar at the 86th Academy Awards on Sunday night, misspelled his surname as Northrop. And the headline misspelled it as Northrup. The errors came to light on Monday after a Twitter user pointed out the article in The Times archives. (The errors notwithstanding, The Times described the article as “a more complete and authentic record than has yet appeared.”)
Of course, now that they have Twitter, corrections get made a lot faster than they used to. For example, this correction appeared this past Saturday on a story from the followingday’s paper (though the piece was posted online Friday):
An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a fish store in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighborhood. It is De La Mer, not Hooked.
At least they correctly spelled the name of Ontario’s capital.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
