I don't quite see how this takedown of Skeeter is so brilliant. Ok, she's been convinced of something that's not true, but what of it? She's written untrue things before without getting into trouble.
That's what I was wondering about the most. Perhaps the main difference is that her usual dishonest stories are written to be difficult to falsify — so it's technically her word against her victims' — whereas in this case she believes the story to be true, and perhaps the Weasley twins will have left specific proof that the story is false, or perhaps even made it appear that she had actively forged the evidence; this could compel the Daily Prophet to fire her (even if they don't really want to). It probably wouldn't do much to her reputation (sounds like everyone already hates her), but if it interferes with her career, her ability to disseminate information to wide audiences, that could indeed reduce her usefulness to Lucius.
Come to think of it, how do real tabloids get away with reporting week after week that every celebrity is having an affair with every other celebrity or is in drug rehab or whatever? Do the celebrities in question just not consider it worth the time or money to go after them for libel?
Update: Please post new comments in the latest HPMOR discussion thread, now in the discussion section, since this thread and its first few successors have grown unwieldy (direct links: two, three, four, five, six, seven).
As many of you already know, Eliezer Yudkowsky is writing a Harry Potter fanfic, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, starring a rationalist Harry Potter with ambitions to transform the world by bringing the rationalist/scientific method to magic. But of course a more powerful Potter requires a more challenging wizarding world, and ... well, you can see for yourself how that plays out.
This thread is for discussion of anything related to the story, including insights, confusions, questions, speculation, jokes, discussion of rationality issues raised in the story, attempts at fanfic spinoffs, comments about related fanfictions, and meta-discussion about the fact that Eliezer Yudkowsky is writing Harry Potter fan-fiction (presumably as a means of raising the sanity waterline).
I'm making this a top-level post to create a centralized location for that discussion, since I'm guessing people have things to say (I know I do) and there isn't a great place to put them. fanfiction.net has a different set of users (plus no threading or karma), the main discussion here has been in an old open thread which has petered out and is already near the unwieldy size that would call for a top-level post, and we've had discussions come up in a few other places. So let's have that discussion here.
Comments here will obviously be full of spoilers, and I don't think it makes sense to rot13 the whole thread, so consider this a spoiler warning: this thread contains unrot13'd spoilers for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality up to the current chapter and for the original Harry Potter series. Please continue to use rot13 for spoilers to other works of fiction, or if you have insider knowledge of future chapters of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
A suggestion: mention at the top of your comment which chapter you're commenting on, or what chapter you're up to, so that people can understand the context of your comment even after more chapters have been posted. This can also help people avoid reading spoilers for a new chapter before they realize that there is a new chapter.