There is a rule in Python programming called "it is Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than for Permission" (in short: EAFP). It means that you should catch exceptions instead of checking values for validity.

Thus, try the following:

try:
    qByUser = byUsrUrlObj.read()
    qUserData = json.loads(qByUser).decode('utf-8')
    questionSubjs = qUserData["all"]["questions"]
except ValueError:  # includes simplejson.decoder.JSONDecodeError
    print('Decoding JSON has failed')

EDIT: Since simplejson.decoder.JSONDecodeError actually inherits from ValueError (proof here), I simplified the catch statement by just using ValueError.

[This answer is outdated. See other answers for modern python versions]

Scanning the json/decoder.py source code, we can see that the decoder's error messages are constructed using the errmsg function:

Copydef errmsg(msg, doc, pos, end=None):
    # Note that this function is called from _json
    lineno, colno = linecol(doc, pos)
    if end is None:
        fmt = '{0}: line {1} column {2} (char {3})'
        return fmt.format(msg, lineno, colno, pos)
        #fmt = '%s: line %d column %d (char %d)'
        #return fmt % (msg, lineno, colno, pos)
    endlineno, endcolno = linecol(doc, end)
    fmt = '{0}: line {1} column {2} - line {3} column {4} (char {5} - {6})'
    return fmt.format(msg, lineno, colno, endlineno, endcolno, pos, end)
    #fmt = '%s: line %d column %d - line %d column %d (char %d - %d)'
    #return fmt % (msg, lineno, colno, endlineno, endcolno, pos, end)

Since this is a pure-python module, it's easy to wrap this function with a custom one. This process is known as monkey patching:

Copyimport json

original_errmsg= json.decoder.errmsg

def our_errmsg(msg, doc, pos, end=None):
    json.last_error_position= json.decoder.linecol(doc, pos)
    return original_errmsg(msg, doc, pos, end)

json.decoder.errmsg= our_errmsg

try:
    data = json.loads('{1:}')
except ValueError as e:
    print("error at", json.last_error_position)

Obviously, this solution is not ideal, since the implementation may change at any time, although it's still better than relying on the message. You should check if errmsg exists before patching (and possibly if there's no other arguments, or use varargs).

The correct answer is: stop NOT wanting to catch the ValueError.

Example Python script returns a boolean if a string is valid json:

import json

def is_json(myjson):
    try:
        json_object = json.loads(myjson)
    except ValueError as e:
        return False
    return True

print(is_json('{}'))              # prints True
print(is_json('{asdf}'))          # prints False
print(is_json('{"age":100}'))     # prints True
print(is_json('{'age':100 }'))    # prints False
print(is_json('{"age":100 }'))    # prints True