UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

It's a defamation suit. The standard, putting it in the most simple terms, is "reckless disregard for the truth."

I am sure she is represented, and they know something I probably don't about the law (and the mess the court they are in has probably made of the law). ... but I can't see how you are helping yourself, if you say, "It wasn't a mistake to rely on someone who was so emotionally fragile. ... It was a mistake to rely on someone whose intent was to deceive me."

In a defamation case, even if you reported something false, you can get off just fine if you demonstrate that you made good faith efforts to independently corroborate what you were reporting. You need to show that you reported the hell out of it, contacted lots of independent sources who could shed light on it, made very good faith efforts to verify every fact independently. ... and yet still somehow got it wrong.

It's not good enough to say that you made a huge mistake relying on someone whose intent was to deceive you. That is the exact point in a defamation or libel suit. It's your responsibility to NOT rely on just one person's account, and when it comes to charges that explosive, you have even more responsibility to cover your tracks.

I am not saying anything others haven't said on this thread. But it just seems to me that is a horrible thing to say at your defamation trial. It reads to me like you are essentially admitting your liability.