Now Lena Dunham Folds

Overnight, Random House announced that it would be changing future copies of the "memoir" by Lena Dunham to indicate that in her story of being raped by a student named "Barry", the actual name of the assailant was not used.  This may not sound like much, but it is the second phony rape story running through the media these days (the Rolling Stone rape hoax at U VA is the first.)  The problem with both these stories is that each got intense media coverage and each did major damage to people who were falsely accused of rape.  The Dunham book gave all sorts of details about the supposed attacker, and those details pointed at one fellow named Barry who suffered immensely as a result.  First he alone and then his lawyer tried to contact Dunham, her attorney and Random House to ask for them to clear his name, but he got no response despite months of trying.  Even when the story broke into the news, the perpetrators of this libel did nothing; I assume they enjoyed the publicity.  Only once a real threat of litigation surfaced did Random House finally take action.  Interestingly, Lena Dunham who created this fraud has said nothing herself.  No apology of any sort has been forthcoming.  Dunham describes "Barry" as the resident campus conservative, as if that makes it okay to call him a rapist.  For many on the left, being a conservative is necessarily so evil that it does no harm to make false criminal charges of heinous crimes.

My advice to Barry is that he keep going and file a suit.  Random House says it will pay his legal fees to date.  That is not enough.  Random House and Lena Dunham, in particular, ought to be hit in a place they actually care about:  their wallets.  A jury hearing this tale of woe is surely likely to impose punitive damages on Dunham.  If "Barry" wants to donate the proceeds to charity, that's great.  If he wants to keep the money, that too is great.  The key, however, is that fools like Dunham ought to be punished.