Actually if you go back and reread Anna's post it isnt about defending Erdely as much as it is about calling out Soave for dismissing a rape victim because of his "gut feeling"

With all due respect, your assumptions don't seem to match up with actual experience. I recently read a quote about post-war PTSD — "It's not the inability to remember, it is the inability to forget." Turns out medical research backs claim that up.

You're engaging in the Daily Show Defense...serious when you're on the attack, "just a joke" when on the defensive.

Why is Anna Merlan still reporting on this issue?

And this is why everyone who questioned the reporter initially said it was poor journalism. The consequences of her lack of journalistic responsibility could hurt rape victims. The sad truth is her story will probably be used as a way to discount the real issue of campus sexual assaults throughout the country.

you're digging. "barry one" still has a reasonable suit for libel here, and given that she explicitly said what names were changed as they were mentioned in earlier instances of the book, his not being mentioned as changed is a major issue as he is identifiable with various characteristics. I don't understand…

How do I get a job as a fact checker?

maybe. still, purely as a fact checker, we advocate "better safe than sorry" in these areas. I'm not saying the brouhaha isn't overkill, but it's really the smart thing to do when printing an accusation of a crime.

Look, I dislike Brietbart as much as the next person, but an investigation into an allegation of an extremely serious crime that implicates an apparently innocent person that has the same name, political affiliation and attended the same small liberal arts school at the same time as the person that Dunham named in her…

I agree completely. Increasingly, their position that they didn't seek out the accused because Jackie asked them not to and they wanted to protect her, seems more like an excuse for not doing their due diligence more than anything else. There were a few other women in the story who talked about their assaults. From…

they're indulging in curiously-precise denials.

There's really only one place to "swing" to here. Everyone should just stop speculating right now. Don't call Jackie a liar, and don't call any of the frat boys rapists. Let the reporters do the work that should have been done before now. This story has only just started to unravel. It could go anywhere from…

No, see, you need to shut up because your facts don't fit the narrative or worldview of Jezebel.

Perhaps you should engage in your own fact checking? UVA classes ended on December 5. (We have this thing called "the internet," with which you may be familiar, that allows one to check facts. See, for instance, here: http://www.virginia.edu/registrar/cale…) What is your basis for saying that no students were on…

The more information that comes out on this, the more obvious it is that Rolling Stone should just replace their retraction with a gigantic "we failed on pretty much every level imaginable beyond writing a compelling piece." I understand that they're scrambling, but put the damage control on hold for a minute and…

While there was a lot of journalistic malpractice on this story, Jackie was still the one to tell the reporter a clearly inaccurate story and then cover it up by insisting that no fact-checking take place. Saying that Rolling Stone deserves all of the moral blame because it didn't take enough precautions is the most…

She is an incredible girl with incredible strength and fabulous scarves. Seriously, every time I see her I'm like, I want that scarf so badly. Then I feel shallow. Still, they are always gorgeous.

Motivation for making this up. More likely version of events considering the news:

I'm one to automatically believe rape victims and accusers, but Jackie came of a bit unhinged in the Post article. It wasn't so much the discrepancies that the frat pointed out, but what her friends and Jackie herself were saying. She changed her story multiple times. The vicious injuries she described weren't visible…

It looks like you were right. It's unfortunate because I know women who have been raped - no so brutally but traumatized nonetheless and the intense questioning and flat out disbelief they receive is awful. I just incorrectly assumed no one would make up such graphic. awful details.