Credibility of liberal Lena Dunham’s ‘campus Republican raped me’ story shrivels

Add liberal media mouthpiece Lena Dunham to the list of the latest suspicious rape stories that push the progressive agenda.

The omnipresent Dunham, the producer and star of HBO’s “Girls,” overrated author and outspoken apologist for President Obama and all his works, is under intense media scrutiny after it turns out there are serious questions about a supposed sexual assault that she claims happened to her at Oberlin College.

And prominent media critic Howard Kurtz is among those pointing out her “credibility crisis.”

In a nutshell, Dunham uses her book “Not That Kind of Girl,” to describe a sexual assault she suffered at the hands of a “mustachioed campus Republican” she identifies only as “Barry.”

Dunham claims “Barry” was a pseudonym, but Breitbart News  investigated Dunham’s description of her alleged assailant. Given Dunham’s description, such a man, shouldn’t be hard to find on a campus as small as Oberlin – if he existed.

As Breitbart puts it:

For instance, Dunham informs us her rapist sported a flamboyant mustache, worked at the campus library, and even names the radio talk show he hosted.

To be sure we get the point, on three occasions Dunham tells her readers that her attacker is a Republican or a conservative, and a prominent one at that — no less than the “campus’s resident conservative.”

Breitbart was unable to verify any of those details but one: There was a prominent conservative on campus at the time Dunham attended whose name was Barry. And he’s got a lawyer.

Random House, the publisher that paid Dunham a $3.7 million advance for the book, has issued a statement of regret (not an apology) about the passages, announced it would make clear in future print and electronic copies of the book that “Barry” is a pseudonym.

Random House also offered to pay any legal fees the man has incurred in preparing a libel suit over the story.

That’s all well and good. But if Barry the known campus conservative didn’t rape Dunham (he apparently never even met her, according to National Review Online, which also looked into Dunham’s story) and investigations by journalists can’t find anyone who matches such a description at a college with only 3,000 students, the question is, did the event occur at all?

Or is it, like the Rolling Stone article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, a story that fits so well with the ludicrous liberal “narrative” that college campuses are havens of rape in the United States that it was irresistible.

Rolling Stone has apologized (twice.) Random House has announced clarifications and offers to pay legal fees.

But the progressive agenda rolls on.

For what it’s worth, Dunham issued a lenthy statement to Buzzfeed defending herself. For what it’s worth, the last sentence — ostensibly meant for rape victims as a whole, but no doubt meant to apply to Dunham herself is: “You can help by saying I believe you.”

For what it’s worth.

 

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Joe Saunders

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles