Well, 'pedants' doesn't have to be a possessive here (it needn't be analogous to 'Speakers' Corner', although that is of course the most common pattern), but your assumption that he omitted the apostrophe where one pedant's possessive's apostrophe would have belonged, rather than where the correct apostrophe to denote several pedants should have been placed, is unsafe, anyway. :)
Ha, a bite! Does nobody read Private Eye? They have a pedants corner (deliberately unpunctuated to avoid further controversy), and had a very lengthy correspondence of people arguing over correct placement of the apostrophe. Can't remember who won.
EDIT -- I've got loads of great stories like this. shakes head at sorry state of life
EDIT -- I've got loads of great stories like this. shakes head at sorry state of life