Tim Lambert
tlambert
Posts by this author
Laura Billings has a article in the St Paul Pioneer Press where she argues that Lott has "been largely discredited as a reliable source of information on gun policy". In the Albuquerque Alibi Steven Robert Allen lambasts both Lott and Bellesiles as frauds.
ArchPundit has a post and another post on Lott's new survey. He argues that Lott has replicated his previous survey---by replicating a worthless survey with another worthless survey.
Lott's new book has been published. This means that I can disclose the results of his 2002 survey. In that survey, 7 people said that they had used a gun for self defence. Of those 7 people, only one reported firing the gun (in fact, that person reported wounding the attacker). This…
David Mustard has made a statement giving his recollections about when Lott told him about the survey:
I do not remember the first time John Lott and I talked about the survey. At the time there was nothing exceptional about the survey for me to associate with it and help me remember when I first…
Lott makes it into the Sunday comics. (Thanks to Julian Sanchez for the link.)
Glenn Reynolds has an update with comments from Dan Polsby who writes:
Numerous of Lott's opponents (John Donohue, Ian Ayres, Phil Cook, Jens Ludwig, and many others) use the Lott-Mustard numbers, subsequently updated by Lott, in their work because they have to
However, because of…
Glenn Reynolds links to a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial that is very critical of Lott.
I came across this quote from Lott in a May 28, 1999 article by Jeff Jacoby:
"There are 15 national surveys that have been conducted by academics as well as polling organizations like the Los Angeles Times and Gallup, and their average estimate indicates that people use guns…
Henry Farrell observes that while Joyce Lee Malcolm's Reason article about Bellesiles describes several cases of misconduct other than Bellesiles, it does not mention Lott. However, this article is from the print edition, so it is likely to have been written before the Lott affair…
BuzzFlash has an interesting story which details some more examples of apparent dishonesty by Lott.
I was able to check one of them myself: Mary Rosh's defence of Lott's statement that the "the worst thing people can expect from dioxin is a bad rash". Rosh argues that this isn't Lott's…
compiled by Otis Dudley Duncan and Tim Lambert revised 26 Feb 2003 by Tim Lambert
This pages documents direct and indirect references Lott has made to a survey he claims to have carried out in 1997. Further analysis is here, and the latest update is here.
The information of over…
The ad that Lott said was placed in the December University of Chicago Magazine has appeared in the February 2003 issue: (The delay was apparently caused by a mix up.)
Attempting to reach two people who worked on and helped coordinate others on a survey given by John Lott while they were…
Archpundit and Tom Spencer comment on Lott's fudged figure.
Costa Tsiokas discusses Lott's integrity.
Kevin Drum observes that even an 11-year-old kid seems to understand the problem of having too small a sample size in a poll. The Sunday paper here printed a supplement giving property auction clearance rates by suburb. Except, of course, for those suburbs where there had been…
Atrios and Tom Spencer link to the Rob Levine article I mentioned a few days ago. Tom also writes: "Many are saying that it's probably only a matter of time before [Lott] loses his position at the American Enterprise Institute."
John Quiggin concludes that "with a high degree of confidence that no survey was ever undertaken", but suggests that declining ethical standards at the American Enterprise Institute mean that Lott will keep his job for now.
No new developments in the Lott case today. This is bad news for Lott. The Chicago Tribune story was published a week ago. If Lott had a dozen students doing interviews for a month in 1997, you would expect them to have told their friends about what they were doing. If each interviewer…
Rob Levine has a very critical article on Lott at citypages.com.
Here is the story behind the removal of Rosh's review of More Guns, Less Crime from Amazon.
Over at the History News Network, Clayton Cramer has a post where he comments on the parallels or lack of same between the Lott and Bellesiles affairs:
1. There were legitimate questions raised about the 1997 survey, most notably by Tim Lambert. Proving that the survey didn't take place…
Some commentators have been saying that the 98% is the only dodgy thing Lott has done. Actually there are plenty more. For another example, look at how he fudged a graph in More Guns, Less Crime.
Atrios points us to a Mary Rosh posting at freerepublic.com where she urges folks to rig the download counters at the Social Science Research Network by downloading a Lott paper as frequently as possible.
A couple of weeks ago I described how Lott used his Mary Rosh sock puppet to blame the New York Post for the fact that an article he wrote omitted to mention the fact that the students who captured a school shooter were police officers.
A couple of months later, however, in Lott drafted his…
Ron Grossman has a story about Lott and his survey in the Chicago Tribune. I have three comments on the story:
This is the first newspaper article that mentions that Lott is looking for the students who conducted his survey and it's in a Chicago newspaper. You would expect that some…
Roger Ailes makes an good point---now that Lott's mystery survey is getting wide publicity, why haven't any of the students who allegedly did the interviews come forward?
Archpundit points to a Valentine poem in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Kieran Healy has a Valentine poem too.
Another letter has been sent to the Washington Post, and by an amazing coincidence makes the same error about the Post article as the previous ones:
A column appearing in the Post yesterday (Feb. 11, "Fabricated Fan and Many Doubts") implies that economist John Lott made up the claim that a…
In response to this story in the Washington Post, Lott has apparently orchestrated a letter writing campaign. Eugene Volokh has posted the four letters. Julian Sanchez points out that all four letters make the same incorrect claim: that the Washington Post is questioning whether Lott had…