When news broke regarding the Sydney Morning Herald's publication of a rape story that turned out to be unsubstantiated, women on the Twittersphere erupted.

One of the first and loudest was feminist writer Amy Gray. Here she explains why women on social media were claiming that this story could be catastrophic for a generation whose defining fight has been violence against women.

Paul Sheehan and the case of "Louise" has unravelled quickly, even for spectators of online debate.

On Monday the Sydney Morning Herald columnist wrote an article that detailed an alleged group attack on a nurse who was left unsupported by police and other services, then freefalled into a tale of gross error and incompetence, along with charges of racially biased hysteria, most likely seeded by Islamophobic groups.

By Thursday Sheehan had written a retraction for the article and explained some of his failures, acknowledging "that there was not enough definite information to justify writing the story", but maintaining he saw "no red flags" in his four interviews with "Louise" and a Google search.

Still, his only apology was to police, curiously phrased as "I owed an apology to the NSW Police because the column had created the clear impression of police indifference towards this alleged crime".

In the coming weeks there may be answers as to how the Herald failed so many basic editorial checks and procedures in its rush to publish, and as a result, failed its readers.

But Sheehan's retraction will amount to very little because of the negative impact it has already made on two key areas he has not apologised for: sexual assault and race.

'Damaging to journalism, catastrophic for sexual assault victims'

Publishing a completely unchecked allegation of rape is not only extremely damaging to journalistic standards and reputation (explored in some depth by the Columbia School of Journalism after the Rolling Stone campus rape debacle), it's catastrophic for sexual assault victims.

It adds grist to the bilious mill for rape apologists who continually assert that many rape allegations are false, giving them a high-profile example to wield for years to come.

They won't worry about the fact that such cases are rare - false rape accusations have a globally low rate of anywhere between 1 and 8 per cent (the same as other rates for false crime reports) - they have a link published by an apparently reputable masthead.

This is part of the double standard feminists and campaigners face - talk about rape and rape allegations publicly and we're told to wait until the courts decide because nothing has been proven.

Sheehan's article, however, is proof to them that women lie about rape, with no court case needed for their rationale.

Who needs easily forgettable statistics on false rape accusation, under-reporting rape and the staggering lack of convictions in the court when you have a high profile story that's been shared more than 11,000 times?

People will believe the statistical anomaly of a fake rape claim rather than the widespread statistical reality of rape - there's no doubt this will stick in the mind quicker than any statistic or report.

This memory will linger when the often female victims of sexual assault go to hospitals for medical help, enter police stations to file reports or ask their family and workplace for help and support.

Their experiences will be diminished because somewhere in someone's mind is the lesson that women lie about rape. The consequences of this are potentially enormous.

When it comes to society's conversations about rape, there's a curious discrepancy.

Talk about footballers and sexual assault, and people are concerned about 'good guys' having their life ruined by "picking up strays". Talk about rape in general, and if you can get a response at all, it's often about how feminists hate men.

But if the alleged attacker isn't white, all of a sudden previously silent men become militant feminists. It's curious, then, that these men only use this newfound feminism as a cudgel against feminists.

When reports finally emerged about groups of Muslim refugees sexually assaulting women in Cologne, many took feminists to task for not reporting on it earlier, claiming their devotion to political correctness showed they didn't care about women.

Most of these critics were curiously silent when subsequent investigation showed there were few actual refugees in the suspect list and fewer still suspected of sexual assault. (We should not need to spell out that feminists are in favour of reporting sexual assault.)

'Either you defend women or you defend Muslims'

That's because arguments like these are neither used to defend women from sexual assault, nor to elevate to national discussion - they are wilfully ignoring the number of white Western men who sexually assault women.

Instead it's Chicken Little cry, indirectly claiming a racial group are 'too dangerous' to accept. They are presenting a black and white binary: either you defend women or you defend Muslims, a notion that spectacularly ignores the number of Muslim feminists, probably because they never wanted to listen to women in the first place.

Sheehan's article exploited this racial bias, quoting one man's description of the alleged attackers as "Middle Eastern Raping C***s".

He wrote in his retraction: "In the story recounted to me by Louise, she made insulting references to rapes committed by Middle Eastern men. I had wrongly amplified this insult by including her words in the column."

Whatever his intent, this leaves Sheehan open to unanswered allegations of anti-Muslim rhetoric, with fellow Fairfax columnist Jenna Price noting "a quick check of Sheehan's work over the last year" found "more than 30 mentions of Islam or Muslims in 30 different stories and there is nearly always a faint air of menace".

One of the reasons we need to be wary of adding weight to Islamophobia is because it is on the rise: Islamophobic attacks spike after news breaks of Islamic extremist terrorism.

Sheehan needs to do more than apologise to the police and the editors who pay him, but that's a retraction we'll never receive.

This shameful episode has damaged how sexual assault victims are treated and highlights, once again, a pursuit of media clicks over professional rigour.

Australia urgently needs reporting guidelines on the assault of women. If the media can adhere to reporting guidelines for mental health, they've shown an understanding the impact their work can have.

Why they can't show the same consideration and rigour towards victims of sexual assault and the Muslim community is a question of critical importance.