ExposureBlog

In this world there are consultants who tell their clients (often lawyers) what the cultural territory is like.  Politically, is the jury pool red or blue?  Wealthy, mid-level or poor?  Do they owe a lot of money?  Do they shop at Target, K-Mart, or. . .well, whatever place the really wealthy shop for Target-quality stuff?  I’ve had the opportunity to read some of the reports these guys churn out and some of it is impressive.  But I’ve also noticed that there is a wide variation in the number of references and end-notes.  I recall one of them obviously read New York Times columnist David Brooks, and probably even read his book, Bobos in Paradise, in which he compared local versions of red vs blue America. 

Apparently a lot of people think he’s a very smart guy and that his book approaches academic quality for the insights it offers.  His books and columns are fun to read and one comes away thinking that they’ve learned a deep truth about American culture.  Except. . .

Some of that stuff was, well, made up.

It seems Philadelphia reporter Sasha Issenberg did a little cookie-jar level fact checking on some of the claims Brooks made and found that the stuff was wrong.  Certainly nothing anyone would want to rely on for, say, jury selection.  When she confronted Brooks about it over the phone, he hemmed, hawed and parsed—even calling Issenberg’s skills as a reporter into question and darkly suggesting (it seemed to me anyway) that confronting David Brooks was not the way to get ahead in the news business. To judge for yourself, read the article here.

While Brooks is a good writer and probably a fun person to hang around with, his work may not be the thing you’d want to rely on either as a consultant studying cultural patterns nor as a lawyer interested in jury selection.