A Rape on Campus

{{Media}}

'''"A Rape on Campus"''' is a controversial (and ultimately retracted) article in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine written by Sabrina Rudin Erdely, which purported to tell the story of a young woman named "Jackie" being brutally raped on the campus of the {{wpl|University of Virginia}} and then being thwarted in her attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

The sensationalistic nature of the story made many doubt it from the start, and then alarm bells rang when virtually nothing seemed to corroborate "Jackie's" account.<ref name="Bradley">{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141212011058/http://www.richardbradley.net/shotsinthedark/2014/11/24/is-the-rolling-stone-story-true/|archivedate=December 12, 2014|last=Bradley|first=Richard|title=Is the Rolling Stone Story True?|url=http://www.richardbradley.net/shotsinthedark/2014/11/24/is-the-rolling-stone-story-true/|work=Shots in the Dark|date=November 24, 2014|accessdate=March 7, 2022|url-status=dead}}</ref> 

''Rolling Stone'' hired an independent investigation by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which confirmed that a shocking lapse in journalistic standards had occurred.<ref name=CJR>{{cite web|last=Coronel|first=Sheila|last2=Coll|first2=Steve|last3=Kravitz|first3=Derek|url=https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php|title=Rolling Stone’s investigation: ‘A failure that was avoidable’|work=Columbia Journalism Review|date=April 5, 2015|accessdate=March 7, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412092525/https://www.cjr.org/investigation/rolling_stone_investigation.php|archivedate=April 12, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The magazine later apologized and retracted the story, though neither Erdely, nor the magazine's managing editor Will Dana, were penalized in any way.<ref name="failed all basics">{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407005401/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/business/media/rolling-stone-retracts-article-on-rape-at-university-of-virginia.html|archivedate=April 7, 2015|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/business/media/rolling-stone-retracts-article-on-rape-at-university-of-virginia.html|title=Rolling Stone Article on Rape at University of Virginia Failed All Basics, Report Says|last=Somaiya|first=Ravi|work=The New York Times|date=April 5, 2015|accessdate=March 7, 2022|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Resulting feminist moonbattery==
A small handful of fanatical [[feminist]] pundits, like Amanda Marcotte at ''Salon'', uncritically swallowed the hoax like a hungry [[snake]] swallows a fat rat, demonizing individuals who questioned the story and then refusing to apologize and own up when proven wrong.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2015/04/rolling-stone-rape-reporting-disaster-bias.html|title=The Unexamined Bias Behind Rolling Stone’s Rape Reporting Disaster|last=Chait|first=Jonathan|work=Intelligencer|publisher=NYMag.com|date=April 7, 2015|accessdate=March 7, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421025904/https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/04/rolling-stone-rape-reporting-disaster-bias.html|archivedate=April 21, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Writer and editor Richard Bradley, who had a front row seat to the fabrications of {{wpl|Stephen Glass}} about the Clintons, described the story as containing [[confirmation bias]] against fraternities, [[men]], and Southern states among other groups.<reF>{{cite web|url=https://www.splicetoday.com/on-campus/what-s-wrong-with-the-rape-on-campus-discussion|title=What’s Wrong With the Rape on Campus Discussion|last=Loxley|first=Tracy Q.|work=Splice Today|date=June 9, 2015|accessdate=March 7, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Bradley"/>

==Resulting antifeminist wingnuttery==
To the surprise of no one, the [[Wingnut|ever-eager]] conservative media, frothing [[Antifeminism|antifems]] (particularly [[Thunderf00t]] and [[TheAmazingAtheist]]), and general [[Troll|Internet trolls]] blew the aforementioned [[Moonbat|moonbattery]] out of proportion, turning a fringe minority of the feminist movement's hysterics over it into a [[manufactroversy]] and opportunistically seizing upon every isolated case of the moonbattery they could find and trumpeting it to the skies as [[Confirmation bias|"proof" that modern feminism is stupid]] and [[Misandry|out to get men]].

Undeniably, ''Rolling Stone'' made serious ethical lapses in allowing the story to be published. But many critics fail to understand that the ''Rolling Stone'' story is more the exception than the rule because "false allegations of rape are rare, or at least no more prolific than false allegations of other crimes."<ref>Saunders, Candida L. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44174085 THE TRUTH, THE HALF-TRUTH, AND NOTHING LIKE THE TRUTH: Reconceptualizing False Allegations of Rape]." ''The British Journal of Criminology'', Vol. 52, No. 6 (November 2012), p. 1152.</ref>

==Aftermath of the shitstorm==
In 2015, ''Rolling Stone'' officially retracted the story after the Columbia University School of Journalism completed an external review of how the story was published. The Columbia review found that ''Rolling Stone'' failed to apply "basic, even routine journalistic practice" in verifying details of the accuser's story.<ref name="failed all basics"/> This retraction occurred four years after the retraction of "Deadly Immunity", a 2005 story co-published with Salon.com and written by [[Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]], [[anti-vaccination movement#Autism|linking vaccines and autism]] (in that case, Salon formally retracted the story after ''Rolling Stone'' [[burning the evidence|deleted the story without explanation]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://retractionwatch.com/2011/01/16/salon-retracts-2005-robert-f-kennedy-jr-piece-on-alleged-autism-vaccine-link/|title=
Salon retracts 2005 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. piece on alleged autism-vaccine link|work=Retraction Watch|date=January 16, 2011|accessdate=March 13, 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718110151/http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2011/01/16/salon-retracts-2005-robert-f-kennedy-jr-piece-on-alleged-autism-vaccine-link/|archivedate=July 18, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

Long story short, a good university had a couple weeks of unwarranted bad publicity, a lot of insults were exchanged, college sexual assault education was set back a decade, and nobody won, except the just-mentioned manchildren who made hay of it.

==External links==
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20150404090041/http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-20141119 The archived version of the article]
*[http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-what-went-wrong-20150405 Current version of the article]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rape on Campus}}
[[Category:Rape]]
[[Category:Gender]]
[[Category:Journalism]]
[[Category:Media]]
[[Category:Media hysteria]]
[[Category:Sexism]]
[[Category:Fake news]]

Categories: Rape, Gender, Journalism, Media, Media hysteria, Sexism, Fake news