UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

So, I guess folks who find the story important enough to defend have decided to pretend like the only issues with the story revolve around the failure to reach out to the alleged rapists.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

The New York Magazine piece may be the worst one I've seen, other than the Jezebel one.

She is utterly dismissive of the fact that the fraternity was identified:

Critics of the story say that the men deserved a chance to offer their side of the story before having their names smeared. Except, what names? The only identified entity at risk of reputational harm in Rolling Stone is Phi Kappa Psi, leaders of which Erdely did reach.

This is how she closes the column:

If anything, we should hope that Jackie is lying. Then exactly zero lives will have been ruined in this story.

Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia is not Wal-Mart or Google or Apple. It is a group of about 50-80 men, I'm guessing, and about 10 percent of them were accused of committing an ISIS-level crime.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Well, except Jackie's. And any future victim who isn't believed because of this.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I'm in Richmond now, which wouldn't be much different, news-wise, but I don't really watch TV news.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

The translation for that sentence was: Who cares if these men are falsely accused? They are unidentifiable members of a faceless organization, that's all.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Man, the way some people (otherwise good journalists) are willing to just light journalism on fire hoping to do some greater good here is truly fucked.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

If it comes out that they were falsely accused, which I'm still not sure of, how exactly will their lives be ruined?

I mean, are the Duke lacrosse players' lives "ruined?"

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I know I'm not alone in thinking that Hanna Rosin and Judith Shulevitz are going to come out of this looking really good. And that's nothing against some of the men who have taken this on, but they are female writers who have written about women's issues writing for left-leaning publications, and they have shown that they care about truth more than narrative. It's a low bar, I know, but it appears difficult to clear.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

I get what you're saying, but that's a really low bar, no? I don't know that their lives are ruined, but they certainly are worse off now. I'm sure that there is a significant percentage of the population that still believes they did it. Was it Selena Roberts who wrote, even after they were cleared, that "something happened in that house"?

The writer seems to think that's it's fine if it's open season on institutions, no matter how small, in the name of greater social good.

There was an election cycle where we saw that Republicans tend to lose their minds when talking about rape. So, apparently, do some members of the left.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

You know, you've made me see that my original outlook went too far. But don't lose sight of the fact that there's a large percentage that would look at this thread and think that the "media critics" of SportsJournalists.com are truly fucked here. Much of the public gets very tired of journalists thinking that their profession comes above anything and everything.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

You are going to have to explain this better. I don't understand your point.

 

Re: Rolling Stone on rape at UVA

Well, there's whatever damage is done to the frat bros, and there's whatever damage is done to victims' credibility, too.

Sexual assault is already one of the most underreported crimes in the country, and victims of sexual assault are among the most maligned and stigmatized of all victims. This isn't going to help. And, that's the bigger tragedy.