By The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism issued a scathing report Sunday on the editorial breakdown at Rolling Stone magazine that allowed publication of a story about a purported gang rape of a woman named “Jackie” at the University of Virginia that never really happened. The magazine said it considers the whole affair “an isolated and unusual episode.”
And once again, we’ve learned nothing from yet another in a long line of high profile rape accusations that imploded under the weight of its own prevarications. The fact that “Jackie’s” outlandish rape tale was so readily believed by the article’s author, by Rolling Stone’s editors, and by vast segments of the American public wasn’t “an isolated and unusual” phenomenon. It was business as usual in our culture. If you can stomach an example, read the chilling transcript of Bonny Ghosh’s television news report about the Hofstra “rape” case shortly before it imploded. (It’s little wonder that after Danmell Ndonye swore under oath that she lied about the rape, the falsely accused young men were booed on a national television program.)
The real lesson of the UVA “gang rape” that never really happened isn’t about Sabrina Erdely, Rolling Stone or its lax editors. It isn’t about reporters who take liberties with the facts, and it’s not about “editorial breakdowns.” And it isn’t about “expert fabulist storytellers” who tell rape lies but who seem like credible people. Those are pieces in a much larger puzzle.
And once again, we’ve learned nothing from yet another in a long line of high profile rape accusations that imploded under the weight of its own prevarications. The fact that “Jackie’s” outlandish rape tale was so readily believed by the article’s author, by Rolling Stone’s editors, and by vast segments of the American public wasn’t “an isolated and unusual” phenomenon. It was business as usual in our culture. If you can stomach an example, read the chilling transcript of Bonny Ghosh’s television news report about the Hofstra “rape” case shortly before it imploded. (It’s little wonder that after Danmell Ndonye swore under oath that she lied about the rape, the falsely accused young men were booed on a national television program.)
The real lesson of the UVA “gang rape” that never really happened isn’t about Sabrina Erdely, Rolling Stone or its lax editors. It isn’t about reporters who take liberties with the facts, and it’s not about “editorial breakdowns.” And it isn’t about “expert fabulist storytellers” who tell rape lies but who seem like credible people. Those are pieces in a much larger puzzle.