Rolling Stone is now admitting that an investigative piece describing a horrific gang rape at a UVA fraternity was misreported. The piece led the school to suspend all Greek life, sparked campus protests, launched a police investigation and raised claims that sexual assaults at the school frequently go unreported. Even though writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely initially publically defended the credibility of her article, which tells the story of “Jackie” (her name was changed in the piece), Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana issued a statement today saying:
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 are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.
Dana also said that they should have attempted to reach out to the men Jackie accused of rape to allow them to tell their side of the story, but did not because they “were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault.” The fraternity featured in the piece disputed key facts of the article and told police investigating the story that there were discrepancies about the dates, names and events described by Jackie …
