ZeroHedge headlined the Cornell Jane Doe lawsuit with rape in scare quotes and called her supporters a “Leftist Mob”. No finding in the record calls her accusation false, and the criminal case was reopened September 28. Two quotation marks do the work of a verdict. “Rape” in quotes doubts the word while no one signs the doubt: the sneer in quotes, a claim made without being made. The page drops it lower down: its sixth paragraph calls it “the October 2024 Cornell Rape Case” with no quotation marks. No finding in the record calls the accusation false. Cornell’s own hearings expelled two men, suspended two and found two not responsible, and the district attorney reopened the criminal case on September 28. The sentence’s subject is the crowd. Students and faculty rallying for a complainant become a “Leftist Mob” that “Politicizes”, one label and one motive for many people, and the woman who made the report drops out of her own case. CNN’s headline has her getting death threats. That is the tell to carry into the next headline: when the people backing a victim are written as the threat, look for where the victim went. “Evidence Of False Accusations” hands readers who already doubt rape reports the proof they were looking for. Her texts point both ways. An October 2024 one says “non(e) of the sexual stuff was illegal.” A November 3 one, which the ZeroHedge page does not quote, says “90% of what happened that night was not consensual”. Democracy Now makes the mirror move with a student’s verdict. When a rape report is heard as a stunt, the accused men and the school whose hearings are under review face fewer questions.
