title: Error reading a JSON file into Pandas
body: <p>I am trying to read a JSON file into Pandas. It's a relatively large file (41k records) mostly text. </p>
  
  <pre><code>{"sanders": [{"date": "February 8, 2016 Monday", "source": "Federal News           
  Service", "subsource": "MSNBC \"MSNBC Live\" Interview with Sen. Bernie 
  Sanders (I-VT), Democratic", "quotes": ["Well, it's not very progressive to     
  take millions of dollars from Wall Street as well.", "That's a very good 
  question, and I wish I could give her a definitive answer. QUOTE SHORTENED FOR 
  SPACE"]}, {"date": "February 7, 2016 Sunday", "source": "CBS News Transcripts", "subsource": "SHOW: CBS FACE THE NATION 10:30 AM EST", "quotes": 
  ["Well, John -- John, I think that`s a media narrative that goes around and 
  around and around. I don`t accept that media narrative.", "Well, that`s what  
  she said about Barack Obama in 2008. "]}, 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried: </p>
  
  <pre><code>quotes = pd.read_json("/quotes.json")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I expected it to read in cleanly because it was file created in python. However, I got this error: </p>
  
  <pre><code>ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
  &lt;ipython-input-19-c1acfdf0dbc6&gt; in &lt;module&gt;()
  ----&gt; 1 quotes = pd.read_json("/Users/kate/Documents/99Antennas/Client\    
  Files/Fusion/data/quotes.json")
  
  /Users/kate/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.pyc in   
  read_json(path_or_buf, orient, typ, dtype, convert_axes, convert_dates, 
  keep_default_dates, numpy, precise_float, date_unit)
      208         obj = FrameParser(json, orient, dtype, convert_axes, 
  convert_dates,
      209                           keep_default_dates, numpy, precise_float,
  --&gt; 210                           date_unit).parse()
      211 
      212     if typ == 'series' or obj is None:
  
  /Users/kate/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.pyc in parse(self)
      276 
      277         else:
  --&gt; 278             self._parse_no_numpy()
      279 
      280         if self.obj is None:
  
  /Users/kate/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/json.pyc in _   
  parse_no_numpy(self)
      493         if orient == "columns":
      494             self.obj = DataFrame(
  --&gt; 495                 loads(json, precise_float=self.precise_float),   
  dtype=None)
      496         elif orient == "split":
      497             decoded = dict((str(k), v)
  
  ValueError: Expected object or value
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>After reading the documentation and stackoverflow, I also tried adding <code>convert_dates=False</code> to the parameters, but that did not correct the problem. I would welcome suggestions as to how to handle this error. </p>