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
I want to assume UVA is reinstating “fraternity activities” immediately, but I’m probably wrong.
11 years ago at 2:48 pmThat chapter meeting on Monday is going to be awesome.
11 years ago at 2:52 pmAs if we all needed another reason to hate the incredibly leftist Rolling Stone. What a fucking joke they are. Chick who accused these guys of rape, the catalyst for this whole thing, belongs in prison.
11 years ago at 2:54 pmI think the real lesson here is to just assume Rolling Stone is always full of shit and publishing half-truths. Their story about that Dartmouth whistleblowing douche was contested on practically every count.
Questioning rape victims from afar is tricky, and something not worth engaging in most of the time, which is why I never personally gave an opinion on this story, but from the beginning in my mind the fact that Rolling Stone published the story was a HUGE red flag.
11 years ago at 3:00 pmGood to hear from you buddy
11 years ago at 3:37 pmWho the fuck are you?
11 years ago at 8:58 pmThe girl who wrote the article about the alleged rape had done a previous article back in 2009 and had completely fucked up the facts when the defendant had been guilty. I am not surprised that she did the same with this one.
11 years ago at 3:09 pmthe defendant was innocent in the case. Taking my laps now
11 years ago at 3:11 pmI honestly think Erdeley made up the entire story and that there is no “Jackie”. If it was a case of “Jackie” (an actual student) fabricating the story and duping the reporter, she wouldn’t get the the fall rush, lifeguard, and date of the party aspects so wrong because any UVA student would know these would be questioned. An outside reporter who didn’t go to UVA, however, could easily make such oversights (most non-Greeks assume rush always happens in the fall, for example). Erdley probably made this shit up completely. Her career is over and rightly so.
11 years ago at 3:15 pmWhiskey Ginger, where you at, guy?
I think some sort of apology article is in order. At least acknowledge that you made a mistake.
11 years ago at 3:27 pmI got a 10 spot and 5pack of cope winter that none of this will make main media news outlets like all the slander about Phi Psi and frats in general did
11 years ago at 3:29 pmI don’t understand the people who vandalized their house over these accusations…Way to act like a bunch of fucking children!
11 years ago at 3:30 pmAt the University of Chicago just this week, some geed faked a rape threat against his friend in order to “raise awareness”. And TFM reported a year ago on that fat girl that faked her rape threat too, and there’s obviously the Duke Lacrosse case and plenty of other lesser-known false accusations. Dante Cunningham (an NBA player) just got cleared of domestic violence charges once the police realized his ex was making everything up. He wanted to press charges against her for lying, but they told him they didn’t want to give the wrong impression to actual victims, nevermind the fact that they essentially just told anyone who wants to fake it that they will face no consequences if they’re caught. When will we finally realize that in our efforts to solve the very real issues of domestic violence and sexual assault, we’ve become so reactionary that we’ve created an entirely new problem?
11 years ago at 4:29 pm