Columbia Journalism School to Scrutinize Rolling Stone Rape Article

The November Rolling Stone article painting the University of Virginia as a campus plagued by a rape culture has become synonymous with bad and biased journalism.  After issuing apologies and damage control statements, Rolling Stone now finds itself subject to further scrutiny as the Columia School of Journalism is, at Rolling Stone's request, going to scrutinize the story and how such an irresponsible article ever was published.  Here are highlights from the New York Times on this development:

Rolling Stone magazine said Monday that it had asked the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to conduct a review of a widely disputed article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia.

In an editor’s note that will appear in the magazine’s next issue, Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone’s editor and publisher, said that the review would be led by Steve Coll, the journalism school’s dean, and Sheila Coronel, the dean of academic affairs, and that it would evaluate “the editorial process that led to the publication of the story.” The report will be published unedited and in its entirety on Rolling Stone’s website, and excerpts will appear in the magazine.

The review may do little to quell the debate that has erupted over the story. The 9,000-word article, published last month, detailed the experience of a student identified only as Jackie, who described being raped by seven men at a fraternity party. The explosive account led the university to suspend the fraternity’s operations and helped drive a discussion about the failure to address sexual violence on college campuses.

But two weeks after the story was published, the narrative started to crumble. The magazine acknowledged that the reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, had relied almost entirely on Jackie’s account and never contacted the accused rapists. Other key details have been debunked or questioned by The Washington Post and other news media organizations.

In the wake of those revelations, the magazine has acknowledged that its editorial process was flawed and that it, too, had doubts about the veracity of the account. Critics have written that Rolling Stone’s editors acted irresponsibly, and women’s rights advocates have said the controversy will discourage rape victims from coming forward.

Besides UVA, the losers in this sad affair are true rape victims who may be afraid to come forward or not be taken seriously.