As part of a settlement over part of John Lott’s libel suit, Steve Levitt has issued a “letter of clarification” taking back what he said about a Lott-organized issue of the JLE in an email he sent John McCall. David Glenn of The Chronicle of Higher Education news blog calls it a “doozy of a concession”. Story here.

The actual letter from Levitt is now available on Lott’s blog here.

My view is that libel law is a bad idea, and in particular that a suit between academics is an unfortunate precedent that violates the norms of academic discourse. Nonetheless it’s good to have Levitt’s correction out there. And one can understand Lott’s frustration in trying to get the truth out.

Craig Newmark details Lott’s amended complaint on the other libel charge – hinging on a passage in Freakonomics -- here. If example (g) of “Levitt’s hostility to [Lott]” cited there is for real, then Levitt has also unfortunately violated the norms of academic discourse.

So far, Levitt has not commented on the letter. Nothing about it can be found on the Freakonomics blog site.

Disclaimer: Lott is a personal friend from my UCLA days, and remains so despite my criticism of his lawsuit.