Unless otherwise indicated, data in Distorting the Law derive from reports, features, and commentaries in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, or Christian Science Monitor between January 1, 1980 and June 30, 1999.  Articles from these newspapers were gathered by use of the "National Newspaper Index," an aggregated independent index for all five papers extending, at least in part, before 1980.  Haltom and McCann relied on the index’s subject headings for “tort litigation” and “tort liability,” as well as specific subject headings for “products liability,” “medical malpractice,” “automobile accident litigation,” and the like, to identify articles.   The overall sample was exhaustive of articles listed in the index under “tort litigation” and “products liability.”  Cleansed of irrelevant articles, the total number of articles exceeded 3000.  The authors subdivided the articles into “specific case stories," which focused on one or more recent cases (2846 stories in approximately 2300 articles), and “general articles” (953 articles), which were feature articles addressing general trends and multiple cases in tort litigation.  Counting both the "Episodic" and "Thematic" subsamples, 235 editorials were retained.



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