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36. Different story. That was UVa.

Hat tip, The Cavalier Daily

News
10 years later — student journalists discuss retracted “Rolling Stone” article
How an unsubstantiated story shifted views on campus culture, gender violence and journalism itself


Thrown into the center of this journalistic implosion and activism on Grounds were student editors, writers and other staffers at The Cavalier Daily.

Photo by Sarah St. John | The Cavalier Daily
By Merrill Hart
November 24, 2024

Mairead Crotty, news writer during The Cavalier Daily’s 2014-15 term and Class of 2017 alumna, remembers reading the “horrifying” article in Clark library. The news made its way across Grounds, spreading between glowing screens as students passed the link to Facebook friends. ... Another former Cavalier Daily staffer’s first reaction was visceral: “Holy s—, that’s really intense.”

Ten years ago, “Rolling Stone” published its shock-inducing and now-retracted article, “A Rape on Campus” by Sabrina Erdely. The report featured a University student named Jackie who claimed she was violently gang-raped at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party during her first year. But what happens when a story so consequential is proven untrue?

The graphic narrative ignited protests both on Grounds and at a national level. It also stoked fears of toxic University culture, as Jackie alleged that her friends discouraged her from reporting the assault. Jackie also shared her experience navigating the sexual misconduct reporting process, overseen at the time by Assoc. Dean of Students Nicole Eramo, whose competence Erdely questioned in her article. In response, protestors demanded better treatment for sexual assault survivors along with structural change in the University’s case reporting process.

After receiving national attention and scrutiny, further investigations and fact checking caused Jackie’s testimony to unravel. “Rolling Stone” partially retracted the article Dec. 5, 2014, then issued a full retraction April 5, 2015, citing a loss of faith in its main source. The Columbia Journalism Review condemned the reporting as some of the year’s worst journalism.

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A Rape on Campus



Author: Sabrina Rubin Erdely
Subject: An alleged gang rape at a college fraternity
Set in: University of Virginia
Publisher: Rolling Stone
Publication date: November 19, 2014
Retracted: April 5, 2015

"A Rape on Campus" is a retracted, defamatory Rolling Stone magazine article written by Sabrina Erdely and originally published on November 19, 2014, that describes a purported group sexual assault at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rolling Stone retracted the story in its entirety on April 5, 2015. The article claimed that UVA student Jackie Coakley had been taken to a party hosted by UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity by a fellow student and led to a bedroom to be gang raped by several fraternity members as part of a fraternity initiation ritual.

Jackie's account generated much media attention, and UVA President Teresa Sullivan suspended all fraternities. After other journalists investigated the article's claims and found significant discrepancies, Rolling Stone issued multiple apologies for the story. It has since been reported that Jackie may have invented portions of the story in an unsuccessful attempt to win the affections of a fellow student in whom she had a romantic interest. In a deposition given in 2016, Jackie stated that she believed her story at the time.

On January 12, 2015, Charlottesville Police officials told UVA that an investigation had failed to find any evidence confirming the events in the Rolling Stone article. UVA President Teresa Sullivan acknowledged that the story was discredited. Charlottesville Police officially suspended their four-month investigation on March 23, 2015, based on lack of credible evidence. The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism audited the editorial processes that culminated in the article being published. On April 5, 2015, Rolling Stone retracted the article and published the independent report on the publication's history.

UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo, the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, and several fraternity members later filed lawsuits against Erdely and Rolling Stone. Eramo was awarded $3 million by a jury who concluded that Rolling Stone defamed her with actual malice, and Rolling Stone settled the lawsuit with the fraternity for $1.65 million.

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Wed Nov 27, 2024: On November 19, 2014, "Rolling Stone" magazine published the story "A Rape on Campus."