Here's a thing that happened

I've mostly kept quiet about this. For one, I'm neither a fan nor am I a rape victim, and anything I could have would have been in the abstract and viewed with a lot of distance, which isn't fair to the latter. So with some hesitation, I'm suggesting this article, which is undoubtedly winy and singular, but I agree here:

The Frisky published a hugely irresponsible piece in January titled, “Why I Believe Conor Oberst’s Anonymous Rape Accuser” (which has now been quite casually updated with the news that she recanted).

I remember that article. I remember thinking "I could never write that article." It's not that I doubted her, but I didn't not doubt her either. I didn't know what to think going on only a few sentences written on a blog -- my brain doesn't work like that. An accusation on a blog isn't enough for me to jump to judgment. And while statistics state that only 2-8% of rape accusations are false*,  from a journalistic standpoint, I thought it was irresponsible.

I know how serious this is, and I certainly know that accusations of rape often aren't taken seriously and go under-reported. But the original Frisky article was irresponsible, and I'm a terrible feminist for thinking that.

So how does one think critically about rape accusations -- and this one in particular was in the comment section of a blog, no formal charges brought -- without being a traitor to the cause?

*I think this number is based on police reports only.