Fact or Fiction? Rolling Stone's UVA Gang Rape Story (1 Viewer)

[Andy Dufresne]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...

And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

The UVA author wrote a hit piece on the Anoka school district. We used to live in Anoka.

 

[Zow]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

The UVA author wrote a hit piece on the Anoka school district. We used to live in Anoka.

Really? What was it about?

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

The UVA author wrote a hit piece on the Anoka school district. We used to live in Anoka.

Oh yeah, now I know this author's name. I think the story started out with a student at Fred Moore

 

[Jules Winnfield]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

The UVA author wrote a hit piece on the Anoka school district. We used to live in Anoka.

Really? What was it about?

Gay and Lesbian bullying in local school districtI think

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

What local Blaine angle?

The UVA author wrote a hit piece on the Anoka school district. We used to live in Anoka.

Really? What was it about?

Gay and Lesbian bullying in local school districtI think

Yep

 

[pantagrapher]

Fire up those fact-checkers again.

 

[pantagrapher]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

 

[bigbottom]

Fire up those fact-checkers again.

Dude plead guilty to aggravated sexual battery. Doesn't sound like she's fabricating the story.

 

[bigbottom]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

30 years ago, kegs and open partying at rush events were commonplace.

 

[Slapdash]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...

And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

You'll be back for the mock drafts though

 

[pantagrapher]

I confess I haven't finished the article.

 

[rockaction]

In all seriousness, it wouldn't surprise me. I think journalists and others on the right were unwise to back a fraternity (or a lacrosse team) as if it were the underdog instead of limiting themselves to sexual assault, journalism, and Title IX and general due process prosecutorial standards.

 

[Ditkaless Wonders]

Long time no see. Welcome back.

I've been around. I just find the less I post here the better my attitude is. So...

And this story just touched on a local angle that I thought was interesting and relevant.

I miss your posting.

 

[FUBAR]

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/college_rape_campus_sexual_assault_is_a_serious_problem_but_the_efforts.html

Excellent article on how drunken sluts are replacing "regret" with "rape," enabled by a feminist-lesbian cabal of influential man-haters.

I'm unsure of the actual rules in this forum. It says "free for all" but is it?

After reading that article, it is amazing to me that the places that are supposed to be educating our young adults, are implementing the suggested government policies in this article.

You mean the businesses that need mom and dad's money.

Ah, so the institutions don't really care about educating young adults. Gotcha.

What about the majority of the faculty? Do you think they agree with the policies that are being implemented?

never said whether the faculty, president, etc. care about educating our youth. I presume they do.

But don't overlook the publicity and need for money to function.

Sometimes these are difficult to balance, which appears to be the case here.

 

[Jayrod]

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/college_rape_campus_sexual_assault_is_a_serious_problem_but_the_efforts.html

Excellent article on how drunken sluts are replacing "regret" with "rape," enabled by a feminist-lesbian cabal of influential man-haters.

I'm unsure of the actual rules in this forum. It says "free for all" but is it?

In recent years, young activists, many of them women angry about their treatment after reporting an assault, have created new organizations and networks in an effort to reform the way colleges handle sexual violence. They recognized they had a powerful weapon in that fight: Title IX, the federal law that protects against discrimination in education. Schools are legally required by that law to address sexual harassment and violence on campus, and these activists filed complaints with the federal government about what they describe as lax enforcement by schools.

This is what's going on. Same kind of thing used to go on in Maoist and Stalinist area societies, basically crimes against the state had to be reported or it was treated as complicity. I know, it's not the same thing, but the state insistence on reporting is the same, bad reports and expanded standards to include meaningless, innocent activity lead to harmful identification of ordinary citizens as criminals. It also gives absurd power to those who do the accusing. It's bad enough that liberals and academics are complaining, it's really screwed up.

It reminds me also of the mandatory reporting of child abuse. I understand the premise behind it and agree with it, but holy smokes are there a lot of headaches caused by some over-anxious hand-wringing young teacher who doesn't even have kids. Suddenly bruises and a child's inability to communicate events accurately can lead to traumatizing events of separating families and uncomfortable interviews with government agencies.

 

[Slapdash]

College Women: Stop Getting Drunk Good piece on a click-thru from Slate

 

[Zow]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

You expect a rape victim to be a great writer?

Look, most brutal rapes are going to sound like bad fiction because our brains cannot fully process that such an awful event could be the reality.

 

[pantagrapher]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

You expect a rape victim to be a great writer?

Look, most brutal rapes are going to sound like bad fiction because our brains cannot fully process that such an awful event could be the reality.

The woman who wrote it is a published author. But no, I don't expect her to be a great writer. Many of the details seem fabricated to me.

 

[Zow]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

You expect a rape victim to be a great writer?

Look, most brutal rapes are going to sound like bad fiction because our brains cannot fully process that such an awful event could be the reality.

The woman who wrote it is a published author.

All published writers are great writers?

 

[pantagrapher]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

You expect a rape victim to be a great writer?

Look, most brutal rapes are going to sound like bad fiction because our brains cannot fully process that such an awful event could be the reality.

The woman who wrote it is a published author.

All published writers are great writers?

I clarified in an edit. I don't know where you're getting the great writer thing.

 

[pantagrapher]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

30 years ago, kegs and open partying at rush events were commonplace.

I don't completely buy this; but if it's true, a lot changed in 10 years. She makes the place sound like Animal House. They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house, all while drugging and gang raping multiple women upstairs.

 

[sporthenry]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/us/uva-rape/

I bit hook, line and sinker to this but it appears the person doesn't even exist. Apparently the person had a fake phone number through an online service and sent one of her friends (who apparently she liked) a letter saying how much she liked him. This email was from the accused (who doesn't exist). Reading between the lines and speculating, it appears she fabricated a story to try and get this kids attention. Doesn't sound mentally stable but at some point, you have to be held accountable for your actions.

 

[bigbottom]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

30 years ago, kegs and open partying at rush events were commonplace.

I don't completely buy this; but if it's true, a lot changed in 10 years. She makes the place sound like Animal House. They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house, all while drugging and gang raping multiple women upstairs.

Dry rush policies for fraternities weren't instituted at my university until the early 90s, and we were considered pretty progressive.

 

[General Malaise]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

30 years ago, kegs and open partying at rush events were commonplace.

I don't completely buy this; but if it's true, a lot changed in 10 years. She makes the place sound like Animal House. They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house, all while drugging and gang raping multiple women upstairs.

Dry rush policies for fraternities weren't instituted at my university until the early 90s, and we were considered pretty progressive.

We had delayed rush where I went to school, meaning you had about 2 months to party at all the fraternity houses before going through formal rush in the late fall and making a decision (or having the decision made for you in many cases). Every party served booze and so long as you had your drink in a cup, nobody hassled you. It was a glorious time of my life.

 

[SacramentoBob]

I confess I haven't finished the article.

I finished.

 

[chauncey]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/us/uva-rape/

I bit hook, line and sinker to this but it appears the person doesn't even exist. Apparently the person had a fake phone number through an online service and sent one of her friends (who apparently she liked) a letter saying how much she liked him. This email was from the accused (who doesn't exist). Reading between the lines and speculating, it appears she fabricated a story to try and get this kids attention. Doesn't sound mentally stable but at some point, you have to be held accountable for your actions.

Certifiably insane. This chick is a shtick artist.

Jackie Coakley's email to Ryan ( through the fictitious Haven Monahan, sent 5 days after he "forced her to perform oral sex on five guys/gang raped her on a bed of broken glass):

Quote:

- Forwarded message -

From: Haven Monahan

Date: Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 8:33 PM

Subject: about u

To: @virginia.edu

you should read this. iv never read anything nicer in my life.

Well yeahRyan is fine. Ryans great, actually. I mean hes smart. Hes attractive. Hes funny. Hes a scaredy cat. If you creep up behind him, hell jump right out of his skin. Its pretty amusing. Hes honest. He always calls them just like he sees them. You can constantly count on getting the truth from Ryan, even if the truth hurts. He has the most incredible taste in music. Hes like this walking, talking music library. And he understands how truly important music is. Hes stubborn. He has this regimented way about him that can be so frustrating sometimes. And sometimes the things he says hurt. But hes a really, really good friend. And loyal to a fault. Hes realistic about everything. And Im a dreamer so I mean, its good to have somebody like that in my life. Hes one of my best friends here, you know? Hes more than that hes everything

So, then theres Ryan. And RyanRyans incredible. I didnt fall for Ryan Duffin the first day I met him. Nor did I fall for him on the second day or the third day for that matter. But once I did fall for Ryan, you see, my world flipped upside down. Kathryn doesnt understand what I see in Ryan. I guess I dont understand what she doesnt see in him. Hes gorgeous, but gorgeous is an understatement. More like youre startled every time you see him because you notice something new in a Wheres Waldo sort of way. More like you cant stop writing third grade run on sentences because you cant even remotely begin to describe something, someone, so inherently amazing. More like youre afraid that if you stare at him too long, youll prove your grandparents right that, yes, your face will get stuck that waybut you dont mind. You, like everyone else, may think Im exaggerating, but then again, you probably dont know Ryan Duffin. Ryan has no idea what he does to mehe can make me feel more emotions in one second then I would normally feel in one year. He makes my head spin. And the truth is, Im crazy about him. I mean, if I had the choice of hanging out with anyone in the entire world or just sitting in my dorm with him talking about music and watching a crappy TV showId choose him everytimewithout a single false step. I know he doesnt like me. If someone really wanted you, theyd actually put some time and effort into trying to get your attention. Ryan doesnt even like to be around me sometimes. And that really sucks. When you like someone more than he likes you, youll do anything to switch the scales. The thing is, you cant. You want to tell him how you feel but you know it will end with Its just not going to work out. How can I explain to him that I fell for him because of a million tiny things he never knew he was doing? I know I should just stop trying because he and I are never going to happen. He doesnt like me, Im not his type, Im not the type of person he could ever be with so I should just get over it. The problem is I cant shake these feelings I have for him, I try so damn hard, but they wont go away. I cant move on because the only thing I can find wrong with him, is that he can find so much wrong with me. [Redacted] said I shouldnt give up. She said she read this quote once that said, Theres nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times its sent away. She claimed thats how Ryan and I are. I think shes wrong. I think he was right from the get-go. Hell never see me as anything more than some girl and itll never amount to anything. He told Alex Im not his type and Im a waste of his time. The things he says hurt more than you know but stilltheres something about him that makes me come back for more. All I know is, the girl who gets to be with Ryan Duffin is the luckiest girl in the world. And if she doesnt know that, then she doesnt deserve him.



Best part is that a good chunk of this is lifted directly from a Dawson's Creek episode.

 

[FUBAR]

This story sounds as implausible as the other one. For one thing, multiple kegs and opening partying at an official rush event for underage students? They do an organized orientation for the pledges AND their dates? A close gay friend 5 weeks into your first semester? Getting separated from all your friends and an evil bartender is magically waiting there, ready to slip you a drugged drink, which he ominously refers to as "the house special"?

That's all for starters. Any of those things could happen, but it again has that cinematic, badly written fiction quality to it.

30 years ago, kegs and open partying at rush events were commonplace.

I don't completely buy this; but if it's true, a lot changed in 10 years. She makes the place sound like Animal House. They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house, all while drugging and gang raping multiple women upstairs.

Dry rush policies for fraternities weren't instituted at my university until the early 90s, and we were considered pretty progressive.

We had delayed rush where I went to school, meaning you had about 2 months to party at all the fraternity houses before going through formal rush in the late fall and making a decision (or having the decision made for you in many cases). Every party served booze and so long as you had your drink in a cup, nobody hassled you. It was a glorious time of my life.

getting alcohol at any "unofficial" frat party was too easy. We also had rush in both semesters. I'd completely support limiting Rush to the spring or disallowing any freshman rush in the fall as we were naive and plain stupid our first semester - stayed stupid for a while, but less naive. A few months to learn the reputations of the frats or sororities would help immensely.

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

Well, I think at this point it is more than reasonable to conclude that Jackie made up everything. She was never raped and she invented Haven Monahan. The biggest remaining question to me is what exactly did Jackie tell Ederly during the course of their interviews?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

It's pretty clear nothing will happen to Ederly, RS will keep publishing her, and nothing will happen to RS which will keep making unethical, false journalism and people will keep buying, reading and believing it. As far as I'm concerned anything future or even past from them can't be trusted because they have no standards.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house

Without commenting on her story either way, what you just described was every Friday/Saturday night at my college when I was there.

 

[pantagrapher]

They were basically begging to get caught, throwing a loud, raucous party, serving underage strangers out in the open and letting them wander around the house

Without commenting on her story either way, what you just described was every Friday/Saturday night at my college when I was there.

Mine too. And I'll throw in Thursday night as well.

I guess my rush experience was atypical. I went to a large state school and rushed a fraternity briefly in the early-1990s (ultimately it wasn't for me). There was plenty of drinking, but it was always "after" official rush events, and not with multiple kegs and random students coming in off the street and wandering around the entire house. What she describes sounds more like a regular old frat party to me.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

This is ironic because this is a book written about the Tawan Brawley case by Matt Taibbi's father, Mike Taibbi:

ALL THAT MATTERED WAS THE P.M. NEWS
By JUDITH ADLER HENNESSEE; Judith Adler Hennessee, who often writes about the press, is the co-author, with Michael Baden, of ''Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner.''
Published: June 4, 1989

UNHOLY ALLIANCES Working the Tawana Brawley Story. By Mike Taibbi and Anna Sims-Phillips. Illustrated. 375 pp. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. $18.95.

By now, Tawana Brawley is practically a household name, and just about everyone is aware that the story of her four-day ordeal in November 1987 - of having been taken into the woods near Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and sexually abused by a group of white men - was a hoax. She was found in a garbage bag with feces smeared on her body and racial epithets scrawled on her torso.

The black teen-ager's tale caused tremendous outrage, and very quickly, as Mike Taibbi and Anna Sims-Phillips write in ''Unholy Alliances,'' ''a trio of cynically ambitious self-promoters'' of Dickensian caliber (or maybe Twainian; this is a very American story) insinuated themselves onto center stage, pushing Miss Brawley into the wings. Alton H. Maddox Jr., C. Vernon Mason, both lawyers, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, a hustler (in the book a former associate quotes him as saying, ''If we beat this, we will be the biggest s in New York''), became the intermediaries between the Brawley family and the rest of the world.

Neither the press nor the law could speak to the family without going through the ''advisers.'' Miss Brawley could not get justice, they said; the system was too racist, and they would not permit her or her family to cooperate with the authorities. This book is a dramatic and fascinating account, told in earthy prose and novelistic style, of how a WCBS-TV reporter (Mr. Taibbi) and producer (Ms. Sims-Phillips) covered the story and became part of it in the process. Fueled by anger, the book is as much about the press and how it functions as it is about Miss Brawley. The authors see the story as a war between good and evil, and themselves as soldiers fighting on the side of the angels.
As they tell it, their adversaries were formidable. For the better part of a year, the advisers kept the pot boiling with bombast and invective and cries of cover-up, tossing out wild accusations and destroying reputations with abandon. They had no facts, nothing; they were making it up as they went along. They dragged in Hitler and the Irish Republican Army - they didn't seem to care what they said as long as it made the evening news. Reporters covering the story were also interested in making the evening news, or the morning edition. They needed the advisers and their histrionics as much as the advisers needed them.

Mr. Taibbi and Ms. Sims-Phillips rail against this ''unholy alliance,'' this interdependence between the news media and their subjects and sources, but actually there is nothing new about it. The press has always made such alliances in order to function. In this case, however, race was all-important. Even though the authors don't come out and say so, much of the press and television news, fearful of being branded racist, abdicated editorial judgment and reported whatever the advisers said. All three had unsavory reputations (Mr. Sharpton, for one, had previously been wired by the F.B.I. to inform on his friends), and the press knew about them. Yet they were treated as if their word meant something. Ironically, the news media ended up validating Miss Brawley's story and her advisers' lies simply by repeating them. Even people who were skeptical thought that something had happened to her. (Some blacks were more tough-minded. After initially supporting Miss Brawley, they stayed away from the advisers in droves. Jesse Jackson, who was running for President, wouldn't be photographed with them. In addition, Mr. Sharpton suffered the ultimate ignominy at the Democratic National Convention - he was ignored.) When the authors tried to finesse the advisers' stranglehold on the case by tracking down their own sources, they suddenly became pariahs. Mr. Sharpton accused Mr. Taibbi of bribing a witness to place Miss Brawley at a party during the time she was supposed to be missing. Despite Mr. Sharpton's near-perfect record of deceit, Mr. Taibbi says, his colleagues turned on him like sharks. He and Ms. Sims-Phillips got the full treatment - reports of the charge were aired, and they received death threats and excrement in the mail. The story took a terrible personal toll on both of them. Ms. Sims-Phillips, who is black, says she was considered a traitor by some of her friends. Mr. Taibbi became a favorite target of the Sharpton camp, which put out a humiliating - and obviously false - story saying that he ''sleeps with [ Miss Brawley's aunt's ] dog.''

Mr. Taibbi and Ms. Sims-Phillips first reported that Miss Brawley was lying five months after she was found. It is tantalizing to imagine that the story would have quickly simmered down if the news media had immediately zeroed in on the only hard evidence there was - the medical evidence. The hospital examination showed nothing to support Miss Brawley's story. Nor was there any sign of her having been in the woods - no twigs or grass on her clothes or in her hair. Within days of finding her, the authors say, the police knew. The news media should have found out sooner too.

The latest twist on the Brawley story took place after this book was completed. Miss Brawley reportedly told a boyfriend that she hadn't been abducted, but had run away to escape a beating from her mother's companion. According to the report, her mother helped her invent the story. They thought he would feel sorry for her if he believed she had been raped. Miss Brawley, who has denied telling this version to her boyfriend, has still not told her story in her own words. After having cried wolf once she may be reluctant to go in front of the cameras again, but, as this engrossing book makes clear, the news media would lap it up.

Photo of advisers to the Brawley family: Alton H. Maddox Jr., the Rev. Al Sharpton and C. Vernon Mason speaking outside a church last year. (NYT/Chester Higgins Jr.)

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/04/books/all-that-mattered-was-the-pm-news.html

You would think Matt Taibbi could ask his Dad how to handle this one.

 

[rockaction]

The Federalist posts all the UVA/Rolling Stone emails at this link, for anybody interested. I'm actually not that interested yet.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/12/19/read-all-the-e-mails-between-uva-and-rolling-stone/

 

[bigbottom]

Rolling Stone still has the story up on its site (though prefaced by the "apology"). Unbelievable.

 

[Zow]

Rolling Stone still has the story up on its site (though prefaced by the "apology"). Unbelievable.

I suppose, inevitably, the desire for it to be read is perhaps even higher now.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Rolling Stone farms out review of U-Va. rape story to Columbia Journalism School

Rolling Stone magazine has decided to enlist the Columbia Journalism School to audit its handling of a discredited Nov. 19 story about rape on the campus of the University of Virginia, according to a just-released statement from Editor and Publisher Jann S. Wenner, which reads as follows:

In RS 1223, Sabrina Rubin Erdely wrote about a brutal gang rape of a young woman named Jackie at a party in a University of Virginia frat house [“A Rape on Campus”]. Upon its publication, the article generated worldwide attention and praise for shining a light on the way the University of Virginia and many other colleges and universities across the nation have tried to sweep the issue of sexual assault on campus under the rug. Then, two weeks later, The Washington Post and other news outlets began to question Jackie’s account of the evening and the accuracy of Erdely’s reporting. Immediately, we posted a note on our website, disclosing the concerns. We have asked the Columbia Journalism School to conduct an independent review – headed by Dean Steve Coll and Dean of Academic Affairs Sheila Coronel – of the editorial process that led to the publication of this story. As soon as they are finished, we will publish their report.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/12/22/rolling-stone-farms-out-review-of-u-va-rape-story-to-columbia-journalism-school/

I don't think this review is going to end very well:

The worst journalism of 2014A recap of this year’s most cringeworthy news blunders

News blunders tend to have short lifespans. They’re outed by watchful eyes, social media erupts, and the gears of outrage begin to turn. But after a brief flourish of snarky finger-wagging, they typically disappear, lost amid the ever-expanding sea of digital content.

This year has been one of many triumphs for journalists, who’ve told the stories of political struggle at home and violent struggle abroad, a public health crisis and airline tragedies that drew the eyes of the world, and self-examinations of American racial, domestic, and sexual norms. There have also been plenty of screw-ups, and CJR has kept track of them so you don’t have to. The additional DARTS awarded below aren’t necessarily the most impactful bloopers of the year, though several of them are among the most cringeworthy. Here’s one last salute to the year’s worst of the worst before their final burial at digital sea.

A complete unknown, like Rolling Stone

The disintegration of the magazine’s visceral campus rape story from Nov. 19 wins this year’s media-fail sweepstakes. University of Virginia student “Jackie”’s gang rape tale was heralded as the type of story only Rolling Stone was capable of telling, one that could change the national conversation around contemporary sexual culture. But within two weeks, it began to fall apart.

Reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely didn’t contact the alleged perpetrators of Jackie’s rape, not to mention three of her friends portrayed as unsympathetic to it. It turns out, as reported in a sterling clean-up job by The Washington Post, that Jackie’s account in the story doesn’t match her friends’ recollections of the incident. A number of other key details from the piece have since been disputed or disproved. In its initial editor’s note regarding the story — since updated — Rolling Stone deflected criticism: “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.” It deserves a DART for blaming its utter failure on someone else, and many more for all the lapses leading up to it.

http://www.cjr.org/darts_and_laurels/the_worst_journalism_of_2014.php#sthash.p0fhG0DA.dpuf

That's from the Columbia Journalism Review.

 

[Baloney Sandwich]

Greek Life reinstated at UVA with new restrictions:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/uva-greek-life-reinstated/index.html

 

[SacramentoBob]

Greek Life reinstated at UVA with new restrictions:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/uva-greek-life-reinstated/index.html

These new rules are designed to prevent events that never happened from never happening again.

 

[dhockster]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uva-frat-party-order-sororities-dont-budge-amid-controversy-n296151

More controversy at UVA

 

[Clifford]

So I have heard nothing about this since December. Totally made up?

 

[pantherclub]

So I have heard nothing about this since December. Totally made up?

totally

 

[Clifford]

Greek Life reinstated at UVA with new restrictions:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/uva-greek-life-reinstated/index.html

These new rules are designed to prevent events that never happened from never happening again.

One fake story doesn't mean #### never happened. I have heard many a frat guy at UVA brag about date-rape.

 

[chauncey]

Apparently Columbia University has its own false rape story. Emma Sulkowicz carried the mattress she was "raped" on around campus all semester for her senior art thesis and to raise awareness/shame her accused rapist who was cleared of all charges by a campus disciplinary group. It is disturbing that the media and politicians play along to this nonsense. And that the university allowed this public defamation to occur.

Yesterday an article was released interviewing the accused German student who has suffered through this ordeal for years now, including facebook and email evidence destroying the credibility of Ms Sulkowicz. On the bright side, he has a new Czech girlfriend and will probably win millions in a lawsuit once he graduates.

This rape claim and the one from Lena Dunham both involve girls who admitted to consensual sex and then performed an alleged non-consensual act (anal sex and rawdog sex, respectively) with their accused, followed up with more consensual sexual acts, then parting ways. At least their stories involved actual intercourse I suppose, compared to the UVA chick who just made up a story involving no real people or events.

It is a crazy world we live in.

 

[jonboltz]

Apparently Columbia University has its own false rape story. Emma Sulkowicz carried the mattress she was "raped" on around campus all semester for her senior art thesis and to raise awareness/shame her accused rapist who was cleared of all charges by a campus disciplinary group. It is disturbing that the media and politicians play along to this nonsense. And that the university allowed this public defamation to occur.

Yesterday an article was released interviewing the accused German student who has suffered through this ordeal for years now, including facebook and email evidence destroying the credibility of Ms Sulkowicz. On the bright side, he has a new Czech girlfriend and will probably win millions in a lawsuit once he graduates.

This rape claim and the one from Lena Dunham both involve girls who admitted to consensual sex and then performed an alleged non-consensual act (anal sex and rawdog sex, respectively) with their accused, followed up with more consensual sexual acts, then parting ways. At least their stories involved actual intercourse I suppose, compared to the UVA chick who just made up a story involving no real people or events.

It is a crazy world we live in.

I don't pretend to know what did or did not happen. But "false rape story" isn't the right way to put this. Just because charges were not brought or he wasn't expelled didn't mean the event didn't happen.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Apparently Columbia University has its own false rape story. Emma Sulkowicz carried the mattress she was "raped" on around campus all semester for her senior art thesis and to raise awareness/shame her accused rapist who was cleared of all charges by a campus disciplinary group. It is disturbing that the media and politicians play along to this nonsense. And that the university allowed this public defamation to occur.

Yesterday an article was released interviewing the accused German student who has suffered through this ordeal for years now, including facebook and email evidence destroying the credibility of Ms Sulkowicz. On the bright side, he has a new Czech girlfriend and will probably win millions in a lawsuit once he graduates.

This rape claim and the one from Lena Dunham both involve girls who admitted to consensual sex and then performed an alleged non-consensual act (anal sex and rawdog sex, respectively) with their accused, followed up with more consensual sexual acts, then parting ways. At least their stories involved actual intercourse I suppose, compared to the UVA chick who just made up a story involving no real people or events.

It is a crazy world we live in.

I love how she said pressing criminal charges would be "too draining" but had no problem carrying a mattress around campus for a year to reflect the burden she felt. Get real toots.

 

[PatsWillWin]

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/23/us/rolling-stone-jackie-rape-article-uva/index.html

Police: No 'substantive basis' to support UVA rape story in Rolling Stone

(CNN)Charlottesville Police said Monday that investigators found no "substantive basis" to support a University of Virginia female student's story that she was raped at the Phi Kappa Psi house, an account that Rolling Stone published last November.

"Jackie" told the magazine that in late September 2012, she was assaulted at the house, the article said. Police Chief Tim Longo noted that just because police found no evidence to support her account, "That doesn't mean that something terrible didn't happen to Jackie" on the day in question.

Longo said he welcomed any information that might still be out there about the case.

The Rolling Stone story generated controversy from the moment it came out, first sparking a debate about the prevalence of rape on college campuses throughout the country. But then the controversy turned toward the story's content when apparent contradictions and discrepancies in the article came to light.

Rolling Stone said it did not get the accounts of those accused in the piece, and apologized. Editors vowed to conduct their own investigation, which is expected to be published in early April.

Nine out of 11 people at the fraternity house at the time the sexual assault allegedly occurred talked to police, Longo said. None of them said they knew about a rape, he said, and investigators further determined that it was unlikely a party even happened at the fraternity house on the day in question as was alleged in the Rolling Stone story.

The Rolling Stone reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, talked to police, authorities said, but there were some questions she declined to answer for journalistic reasons. It's unclear what those questions were.

In total, authorities spoke to 70 people as part of their investigation, and just two believed that Jackie was the victim of something, Capt. Gary Pleasants told CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

"The two of them were fairly convinced that something had happened -- not the way it was described, the way it was written. But they thought, again, that something had probably occurred," he said.

After the story's publication, UVA suspended the fraternity's activities, and outrage spread throughout campus as many struggled to comprehend the horrific experience that Jackie said she endured.

The article also suggested the school failed to respond to the alleged assault.

Rolling Stone editors said they chose not to contact the man who allegedly orchestrated the attack on Jackie, or any of the men she said participated in her alleged assault, "because the editors feared retaliation against her," the magazine said, adding that it regretted that decision.

"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," Rolling Stone said in December.

Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will Dana later tweeted that "the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story."

Rolling Stone issued an apology for discrepancies in its article and began to fact-check it. Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, has been leading the independent review, CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter reported Sunday. Stelter said there has been much speculation about Coll's findings.

Columbia University's review will be published in early April in the magazine.

"I can't really say I'm surprised since so much of the evidence was already called into question," a former friend of Jackie's said in response to what police found. "I think it's great that they're staying open to considering any new evidence that comes up."

Ryan Duffin added: "I've resigned myself to realize that I might never know what did or didn't happen."

 

[pantherclub]

Greek Life reinstated at UVA with new restrictions:http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/uva-greek-life-reinstated/index.html

These new rules are designed to prevent events that never happened from never happening again.

One fake story doesn't mean #### never happened. I have heard many a frat guy at UVA brag about date-rape.

how we doing here?

 

[General Malaise]

Greek Life reinstated at UVA with new restrictions:http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/uva-greek-life-reinstated/index.html

These new rules are designed to prevent events that never happened from never happening again.

One fake story doesn't mean #### never happened. I have heard many a frat guy at UVA brag about date-rape.

how we doing here?

People brag about date rape? Good god....and we have people on this forum who have listened to the bragging and not gotten stabby? Yuck.