Both Chris Suellentrop and Matt Yglesias, whom I refer to in earlier posts, have recently mentioned the Shields and Cragan study. Suellentrop, to his credit, also acknowledges that Paul Krugman wrote about it. Three weeks previously.
Money quote from Krugman's 9 March 2007 column:
Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. The main source of this partisan tilt was a huge disparity in investigations of local politicians, in which Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to face Justice Department scrutiny.
How can this have been happening without a national uproar? The authors explain: "We believe that this tremendous disparity is politically motivated and it occurs because the local (non-statewide and non-Congressional) investigations occur under the radar of a diligent national press. Each instance is treated by a local beat reporter as an isolated case that is only of local interest."
The full study is on ePluribus Media.
Hat tips all around. Except to the people who keep Krugman behind the TimesSelect wall. He's worth paying for, which I do, but it would also better serve the public good to make his column freely available.
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