Significantly beyond simple quotidian failures

From 'Primates of Park Avenue,' Stranger Than Nonfiction by Megan McArdle.

Nonetheless, when excerpts from Wednesday Martin's new book, "Primates of Park Avenue," started appearing, my first suspicion was that however difficult it may be to exaggerate the crazy behavior of New York's wealthiest citizens, someone had finally managed it. For example, that piece on "wife bonuses" that took the Internet by storm. I don't find it hard to believe that some sad soul, somewhere, gives his wife annual performance reviews under appallingly transactional terms written into their prenup, and then doles out a bonus accordingly. It's a big, crazy world out there, and almost anything you can think of is probably being done by someone. I did find it very, very difficult to believe that this practice is anything like the broad subcultural phenomenon that the Times piece suggests. ("I don’t necessarily think it’s a trend or widespread," Martin told New York Magazine's Annie Lowrey, which is not exactly the impression I got from either the excerpt, or the book.)

The rest of the article is a pretty thorough evisceration of the empirical reliability of Wednesday Martin as an author.

I know its not true but you almost can't help thinking: Is there anything being published these days that you can come close to trusting?

Anthropological Frauds
Primates of Park Avenue committed by Wednesday Martin
On the Run committed by Alice Goffman

Police Brutality Frauds
McKinney Brawl Another Rush to Misjudgment? exposed by Andrew Branca
Michael Brown and Ferguson summarized by Legal Insurrection

Campus Rape Epidemic Frauds
UVA Hoax committed by Sabrina Rubin Erdely
Emma Sulkowicz Hoax exposed by Cathy Young

That's all roughly within the last six months. These are not local abnormalities. These are national stories held to be hugely revealing of some underlying tragedy or pathology and then essentially having to be retracted in near toto once the facts were brought into the conversation.

Mistakes, errors, biases. All par for the course but these examples seem to go way beyond those quotidian failings. What's going on here? Seems like an awful lot of major retractions going on.