Instead they ALWAYS get a slap on the wrist, but plenty of media coverage and candlelight vigils first.
Well, it may have been a hoax, but they RAISED AWARENESS!
These hoaxes are so frequent, I immediately think hoax after the first sentence out of their mouths.
The only thing that "surprises" me is that this woman isn't a lesbian.
The thing is, a lot of your casual, low info voters happen to catch it on the news and say, “That’s horrible. That must be true that Republican men don’t like women.” Then, they move on and miss the follow up story, which likely doesn’t get as much attention, and which exposes the lie told in the original story. So mission accomplished in a sense.