Researchers Republicans Like
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times, March 25, 2011
Through some kind of synchronicity, at the same time that great scholar William Cronon finds himself under attack for being honest, an intellectual the right likes has added a new chapter to his illustrious career.
John Lott first attracted notoriety with a pro-gun-ownership study nobody else could duplicate; his original data, he said, was destroyed by a hard disk crash. In the furious discussion that followed, one frequent contributor to discussion boards, ardently defending Lott, was someone named Mary Rosh, who claimed to have been Lott’s student and glowed with praise for his teaching.
It eventually transpired that Mary Rosh was a pseudonym; her actual name was … John Lott.
So now Lott has gone on the warpath against Chris Brown of Media Matters, accusing Brown of misquoting and misrepresenting a blog entry. And sure enough, the quote in Media Matters doesn’t match what the post says … now. However, Brown saved a screenshot of what it originally said, which matches his quote.
So, it appears that Lott retroactively tried to put his original statement down the memory hole, then accused a critic of wronging him by quoting what he originally said. Now, that’s scholarship! If Cronon exhibited that kind of diligence, he wouldn’t be under attack.
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