Rolling Stone Admits To Misplacing Trust In Alleged UVA Rape Victim, Issues Apology
On November 19, Rolling Stone published a story recounting an alleged rape that took place inside University of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi house in 2012. The article, A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA, detailed the entire ordeal leading up to, and during, the alleged 7-on-1 sexual assault, as recounted by the alleged victim, “Jackie.” The article also throws dirt on the fraternity and the university with the accusation that they covered up the horrific incident, as well as similar cases of sexual assault in the past, to protect their reputation.
A day after the article was published, the Phi Psi house was trashed and graffitied by outraged members of the community. The story made headlines across major news publications, soiling the names of the Phi Psi chapter and the university.
Just yesterday, we reported that major media outlets were questioning the legitimacy of Rolling Stone’s article, pointing out that there were numerous discrepancies in Jackie’s account.
Today, in a formal apology by Managing Editor Will Dana, titled, “A Note to Our Readers,” Rolling Stone admits that the information they received from Jackie may have some inaccuracies. They are now saying the trust originally placed in Jackie was “misplaced.”
From Rolling Stone:
In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.
To read their apology in its entirety, click HERE.
What a terrible, sad, unfortunate mess..
[via Rolling Stone]
Image via Twitter
How many Duke Lacrosses do we need until we start putting our trust back into “innocent until proven guilty”?
11 years ago at 1:53 pmFloyd, I wish I had more “This” for your comment. You’re point is valid and should be asked of media outlets before any story of this magnitude is published.
11 years ago at 1:57 pmSame
11 years ago at 2:03 pmTragically, the mainstream media has abdicated its responsibility to objectively report facts, opting instead to push narratives that fit their political bent. The mainstream media – largely composed of half-witted feminists and beta males (read: social pariahs) with inflated transcripts (can’t hurt their self-esteem!) – has become convinced that all forms of traditional culture are the source of our national ills. White men on college campus use their #WhitePrivilege to rape at will. White cops don’t believe #BlackLivesMatter. Anyone who believes they should keep what they earn hates the #NinetyNinePercent. The list goes on. (BTW, Twitter outrage makes me smile.) Despite the lack of substantial empirical evidence backing up these university-sponsored theories, these people believe this as gospel (silly, they don’t believe in God!). Anyone opposing their narrative will be publicly shamed and have their character assassinated. Well, I can think of no group of assholes more deserving of a good, old-fashioned ass-kicking than this sad lot.
{breathes into paper bag}
11 years ago at 6:47 pmWorse yet? This can only delay Fail Friday.
11 years ago at 2:19 pmIt would also be nice to see those “members of the community” who trashed the house apologize. Maybe help clean it up.
11 years ago at 3:19 pmThe liberal media won’t change, period. They don’t care how many reputations they destroy. If it’s on their agenda they’re going to do it, even at the cost of a fraternity’s standing. Our justice system is too damn soft against the media when it comes to blaming individuals without proof. We need to start charging these shitheads with felonies that include minimum prison sentences. You can’t just go around accusing an organization of gang raping a woman and think that you shouldn’t be punished. It’s asinine.
I encourage all of you to write to your Congressmen asking them to put laws into place that will end this heresy. We have the money and influence to get what we want and dammit it’s about time we start protecting ourselves and our future Greeks from liberals and the media.
11 years ago at 3:34 pmI hope Phi Psi takes Rolling Stone to the fucking cleaners. Sue those fucks for the highest amount legally feasible.
11 years ago at 4:44 pmDefamation lawsuit should get their house completely refurbished with a good bit of spending cash for recruitment purposes. Both sustained obvious and directly related damages in my eyes.
11 years ago at 4:15 pmRegardless of the apology, Rolling Stone has created a stigma towards Phi Psi that will take years to wear away that a lawsuit can’t erase. I hope there is a lawsuit that would allow the guys to fix their house. But a lawsuit can’t fix the unseen damage this chapter has taken. I hope the best for Phi Psi and I hope Rolling Stone will learn to do a bit more research before accusing a group of such a sad crime.
11 years ago at 8:50 pmLooks pretty difficult in terms of making a case against the Rolling Stone, hope these guys can pull it off. There’s no excuse for reporting that awful http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/12/06/libel-law-and-the-rolling-stone-uva-alleged-gang-rape-story/
11 years ago at 10:48 pmTold y’all.
11 years ago at 1:53 pmWhere’s Whiskey Ginger to tell us that we are practically rapists for questioning the allegation?
11 years ago at 1:58 pmI knew it was bullshit from the second I heard about it. People need to learn to be more objective versus subjective when it comes to rape allegations. Whiskey Ginger is probably asking his girlfriend if he is allowed to apologize to us.
11 years ago at 2:13 pmI hope Whiskey Ginger gets raped up the ass with a spiked dildo from his boyfriend.
11 years ago at 7:57 amNot his fault, man. No soul, you know?
11 years ago at 2:15 pmI didn’t believe it when I first read it. All I could think was that there was no way, in this day and age, a group of people (especially in our demographic that gets so much scrutiny) would ever do something like this and think they could possibly get away with it. Just another case of people wanting their uneducated opinion about frat boys be validated. People are so stupid.
11 years ago at 9:38 pmGODDAMMIT I HATE THE MEDIA. The fact that we ever gave the mainstream media any credibility in the first place is our bad.
11 years ago at 1:53 pmHey Rolling Stone…..hope you enjoy paying dues for a long time to the Fraternity you falsely accused of rape.
11 years ago at 1:53 pmI guess due process isn’t a thing any more.
11 years ago at 1:53 pmSomeone needs to put this Jackie in her place
11 years ago at 1:54 pmSo yeah… Fuck the original reporter
11 years ago at 1:54 pmAnd I remember the tfm staff taking shots at the fraternity. Way to wait for the facts to come out before making judgment. TNancyGraceM
11 years ago at 1:54 pmWell, the problem is that Rolling Stone reported her account as fact. Every follow-up story took shots at the fraternity, because they had to.Edit: I just read our two previous articles on this story. We literally took zero shots at the fraternity, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
11 years ago at 2:00 pmI think taking RS at their word, at least initially, is fair. Turns out they’re completely full of shit and this writer ruined her career.
11 years ago at 2:01 pmOh yes, she’s likely done.
11 years ago at 2:02 pmNow she’s all like “Hands Up, Don’t Ball.”
11 years ago at 1:01 am^she deserves to be balled though. We (the commentariat) have lost good, innocent, men to TFM’s balling. Rest in peace to all those accounts lost.
11 years ago at 8:57 pmR.I.P Shibby.
11 years ago at 11:27 pmR.I.P Frocket
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
11 years ago at 2:04 pm-Edmund Burke
Rollingstone is a business and a story like this is obviously going to get a lot of traction so they are going to want to break it as fast as possible. This one girls story was filled with plot holes and effectively impossible to back up with evidence. Considering these two facts should make anyone skeptical of the alleged crime until more facts are revealed in court
11 years ago at 2:09 pmErdely worked on this story for months before writing it. She just sucks at her job.
11 years ago at 2:11 pmI believe others worked with her as well. It’s hard to believe several people worked this story and no one thought it might be a good idea to speak to anyone at Phi Kappa Psi. This entire this smells like a vandetta.
11 years ago at 2:24 pmI honestly think Erdley made up the whole thing and that there is no “Jackie”. If “Jackie” is real and an actual student at UVA, she would know that there is no fall rush at that school and therefore wouldn’t say that it happened in fall 2012 and involved multiple pledges because that’s an obvious impossibility that would quickly be exposed. Erdley is an outsider and could have easily made that mistake when fabricating a story, however.
11 years ago at 3:21 pmCheck out the comments section of those articles you guys posted. Shit is riddled with shots.
11 years ago at 2:27 pmThe story on its face is ludicrous and TFM posted it as fact. “Rape Culture” at UVA. How likely is it that 8+ fraternity brothers would drug, gang-rape, and assault their partygoers? These rape-fests are nothing more than a feminist fantasy, don’t lend credence to their bullshit by acknowledging it.
11 years ago at 2:36 pm“The story on its face is ludicrous and TFM posted it as fact.”
Wrong. We reported on an article. We presented zero details of our own, and provided zero commentary.
11 years ago at 2:47 pmMaybe not, but Ginger got a little carried away…
11 years ago at 2:54 pmYou should see my response to him.
Spoilers: I was right all along.
11 years ago at 1:09 amDorn is right. TFM didn’t take any shots on the fraternity itself, and just reported on what the RS article was about. There were; however, a few commenters that took it as fact and took shots at the fraternity, led by an alleged blue-piller and contributing writer for TFM. (Whiskey Ginger)
11 years ago at 2:56 pmThat’s a first… Well played Dorno
11 years ago at 8:17 pmI don’t see what’s wrong with taking shots at the fraternity in the comments. We were fooled, just like everyone else, by the “victim” and Rolling Stone.
11 years ago at 7:05 pmwhen are the forums coming back
11 years ago at 2:15 pmTrusting the Rolling Stone was your first mistake; a magazine notorious for liberal bias.
11 years ago at 4:27 pmBut what you are saying is that TFM did no cross checking of facts? Didn’t do any research of its own on a story that was carried on the front page of its website?
How does that speak for your journalistic integrity?
11 years ago at 4:30 pmIf I remember correctly in the comments section of a previous article on TFM about the case the writer came out and took shots at the fraternity in the comments section. Then when one reader commented to say maybe we should withhold judgement because their was a chance that the story was fake he jumped all over. While in all honestly I feel like everyone who has half a brain questioned the story somewhat, given it was pretty outlandish and suspicious that she would come out with it 4 years after the fact.
11 years ago at 8:11 pmIt’s going to be interesting to see all of the lawsuits that come from this.
11 years ago at 1:54 pmThey need to sue the shit out of Rolling Stone for publishing this shoddy piece of ‘journalism’ that could have ruined these young men’s lives. What a joke, fuck them.
11 years ago at 1:55 pmThey actually do have a case against “Jackie” for libel, and possibly against RS for being negligent. Hope they do so, and I hope they get paid.
11 years ago at 2:00 pmIn defamation you don’t have to prove actual loss- financial or otherwise. You only have to prove that the statements made would lower your reputation in the eyes of reasonable people. Defamation is easy to show in this case.
11 years ago at 9:18 amThey would have to prove actual damages. There are damages to the house, but beyond that I’m not sure if there are damages worth pursuing a defamation case for. If they faced some kind of financial loss because of the suspension or the allegations affected their membership, then they might have a case.
11 years ago at 2:01 pmIf they lost scholarships that would count correct? Were any scholarships revoked because of this?
11 years ago at 2:07 pmTrue, putting a damages number on it might be tough. I would pursue it anyway though, even for a $1.
11 years ago at 2:07 pmThe chapter could sue based on the affect it could potentially have on future recruitment which may impact the amount of dues the chapter has coming in
11 years ago at 2:43 pmYou’re right but those damages couldn’t be calculated until after that future recruitment. If Phi Psi plans to bring suit it likely won’t be for awhile.
11 years ago at 2:48 pmLoss of dues, suspension of planned activities, loss of donations, vandalism to the house, irreparable harm to the reputation of the chapter and its members…… there are actually a lot of damages here.
11 years ago at 3:24 pmIndeed. These days, every frat needs a good lawyer.
11 years ago at 3:26 pmSadly. It is also ludicrous that they put all fraternities on probation. Sorry, what?
11 years ago at 4:52 pmAlso, think of their Goodwill (name recognition). That has a numerical/monetary value too.
11 years ago at 1:05 am