‘Our worst nightmare’: New legal filings detail reporting of Rolling Stone’s U-Va. gang rape story

There is a commonly accepted meme running through feminist and liberal commentary that relies on a statistic that sexual assaults on campuses across the country occur in up to 20 percent of male/female interactions. Reason magazine did a series on the origin of the statistic and how it doesn’t hold up in reality. Now anyone can read the various opinions and studies and make a judgement—but mostly the statisitc is simply repeated over and over until it becomes true in the opinions of many people.

A similar thing happened with a statistic about the numbers of homeless people many years ago which a homeless advocate eventually admitted he simply dreamed up.

Once a meme such as this becomes popular , it takes on a life of its own. And there is the danger. Because frauds aginst innocent individuals or institutions can be accepted without questioning the sources or the veracity of the allegations. And more importantly, there is the danger of govenment policies being set because of a unverified meme or theory.

Our elites are never wrong, are they, even when they get caught?
_______________________

That is correct. Even when they are shockingly wrong they are not wrong regardless of the evidence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs

“This reporter wasn't following up on a local story. She started by shopping around for a college that, by her rather arbitrary and in fact counter-intuitive standard, needed a little street justice. Once in the door, she worked her way through whatever levels of rape stories exist in that world, and latched on to the “best” local urban legend presented to her. The fraternity soon became an inevitable target.”

It is actually even worse than that. The Obama administration and the Democrat Party have been pushing a false narrative that 20% of women on college campuses are victims of rape and that all white collage men are rapists.

The reporter was not trying to report news. She was trying to make up a story to support the fraudulent Obama political narrative. The MSM reported her story as 100% true and gave it extensive coverage. There were demonstrations on campus and lies were spread about the college administration, the student body and the fraternity.
There was a police investigation of the charges.

Only later when it was determined that the entire story was nothing but obvious lies did the media back off and stop covering it.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.