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Rolling Stone Retracts Sexual Assault Allegations Suddenly Rape No Longer Exists

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Rolling Stone magazine just released the following statement that will prove to be devastating to survivors and victims of sexual assault. You think women were scared to report before? Watch how many times this story will be thrown in the faces of victims who dare to speak up in the future in an attempt to dismiss all rape reports. Watch how many people simply don’t report because of it.

 

By  | December 5, 2014

To Our Readers:

Last month, Rolling Stone published a story titled “A Rape on Campus” by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, which described a brutal gang rape of a woman named Jackie at a University of Virginia fraternity house; the university’s failure to respond to this alleged assault – and the school’s troubling history of indifference to many other instances of alleged sexual assaults. The story generated worldwide headlines and much soul-searching at UVA. University president Teresa Sullivan promised a full investigation and also to examine the way the school responds to sexual assault allegations.

Because of the sensitive nature of Jackie’s story, we decided to honor her request not to contact the man she claimed orchestrated the attack on her nor any of the men she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her. In the months Erdely spent reporting the story, Jackie neither said nor did anything that made Erdely, or Rolling Stone‘s editors and fact-checkers, question Jackie’s credibility. Her friends and rape activists on campus strongly supported Jackie’s account. She had spoken of the assault in campus forums. We reached out to both the local branch and the national leadership of the fraternity where Jackie said she was attacked. They responded that they couldn’t confirm or deny her story but had concerns about the evidence.

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 were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.

Will Dana
Managing Editor

The search for truth and justice, both in journalism and in the streets, should be of the utmost priority to all of us. But this story does more than potentially clear the name of those that may have been falsely accused, it encourages the dismissal of the testimonies of victims of sexual assault everywhere. Victims were already afraid to speak up. This high profile case will be the go to story for every woman-hating misygonist for years to come. Rolling Stone has not only done terrible journalism they have effectively aided in the discrediting and victim blaming of sexual assault victims everywhere. AND they have paved over the fact that Universities and police already do a terrible job of handling the majority of rape reports as it is.

 

This is bad.

 

 

 


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