Last November, Rolling Stone magazine released an article called “A Rape on Campus” that disturbed many readers. It told the traumatic story of Jackie, who had been gang-raped at a University of Virginia Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party and then was repeatedly shut down when she turned for help.
The article shook up many readers; accounts of sexual assault are (unfortunately) not as uncommon anymore, but what made this story stand out was how personal it was. Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Erdely focused only on Jackie’s story – the reader strongly felt Jackie’s emotional trauma. The article then sparked a nation-wide speculation about sexual assault on college campuses, and in turn tainted the University of Virginia’s reputation.
Now five months later, Rolling Stone has retracted the article, and Phi Kappa Psi is planning legal action against the magazine after “130 days of living under a cloud of suspicion as a result of reckless reporting by the Rolling Stone magazine,” the fraternity said in a statement.
“I want to offer my deepest apologies: to Rolling Stone’s readers, to my Rolling Stone editors and colleagues, to the UVA community, and to any victims of sexual assault who may feel fearful as a result of my article,” Erdely said in a statement.
Skepticism immediately rose after the article’s publication, prompting the magazine to ask the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism to investigate Erdely’s reporting.
The findings resulted in a 13,000-word account detailing the magazine’s journalistic failures.
The report highlighted three serious mistakes Erdely made in her reporting. First, she did not try to contact Jackie’s three friends, who reportedly dismissed her rape story. They were quoted in the article using pseudonyms. Second, she did not provide the fraternity members with enough information to respond to her questions, therefore not giving them a fair chance to defend themselves. In fact, the fraternity claims that it did not even host a function on the weekend Jackie specified. Finally, Erdely and the magazine dismissed any skepticism about the story because the issue was so sensitive.
“I allowed my concern for Jackie’s well-being, my fear of re-traumatizing her, and my confidence in her credibility to take the place of more questioning and more facts,” Erdely said.
Despite the scandal, Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana stated that no one is losing their jobs, because he believes the Columbia report to be punishment enough. However, he hopes that women will still feel comfortable coming forward about sexual assault.
“Sexual assault is a serious problem on college campuses, and it is important that rape victims feel comfortable stepping forward,” Dana wrote in A Note From the Editor at the beginning of the Columbia report. “It saddens us to think that their willingness to do so might be diminished by our failings.”