UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

[PW2]

The "details" or "minutiae" matter because advocates have turned this into a policy debate, citing figures like, "1 in every 5 women has been raped," and "98 percent of rape accusers are telling the truth." (Left unsaid is a huge qualifier: "As they remember it.")

To know how precisely to attack an issue, and what kind of resources to expend on it, we need accurate assessments, to the degree possible, of the extent of the problem. The details matter.

 

[Double Down]

Hmmm.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/12/08/sabrina-rubin-erdelys-old-stories-sure-read-like-bad-lifetime-movies/

 

[YankeeFan]

Hmmm.

http://thefederalist.com/2014/12/08/sabrina-rubin-erdelys-old-stories-sure-read-like-bad-lifetime-movies/

Oh, this is definitely going to get good.

Erdely has been practicing "impact journalism" for years. There's no reason to think this is the first time that she refused to let the facts get i nthe way of a good story, and others are already discovering problems with a number of her stories.

 

[YankeeFan]

Questions raised about this one too:

One Town's War on Gay Teens

In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202

Criticism here: http://www.twincities.com/ci_19906521

 

[PW2]

Questions raised about this one too:

One Town's War on Gay Teens

In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/one-towns-war-on-gay-teens-20120202

Criticism here: http://www.twincities.com/ci_19906521

It's funny. I remember seeing that headline, and then skipping the story because I thought, "Eh, typical Rolling Stone hyperbole. Not worth my time."

 

[YankeeFan]

No way. Michelle Backmann's home district totally sounds like the kind of place where a town would wage a war on gay teens.

 

[doctorquant]

I'd bet good money I could write a properly sourced and properly edited story that shows without a doubt that rape on college campuses is a huge problem.

Define "huge." Of course it's a huge problem if by "huge problem" you mean "it's an awful thing and any number other than zero cannot be tolerated." If, however, you mean "it happens very, very frequently," well then I might take the other side of your bet.

Let's assume it's the latter, and I am going to take the other side. We would, of course, have to hammer out some details. When you say "rape," do you mean the general legal definition (i.e., forcible sexual intercourse)? If so, wouldn't it worry you, with regards to your bet, that per the FBI this country's rape rate has been declining for about 20 years and is approaching 40-year lows?

 

[PW2]

One thing I'd like to know is how the percentage of truth-in-rape-reporting - and I get that it's a dark number, so it's probably unknowable - breaks down at the granular level of college campuses. Maybe 99.9 percent of college reported rapes are truthful. But maybe only 60 percent are, but since they make up a small percentage of rapes (I don't know if this is true), they don't affect the 98 percent number overall. (Or whatever it is.)

So fascinating.

 

[YankeeFan]

Erdely doesn't find gang rape as an initiation into urban street gangs, she finds it in an elite, white, Southern fraternity.

She doesn't find rampant sexual assault in Hollywood, she finds it in the U.S. Military.

She doesn't find homophobia in African-American communities, she finds it in a lily white, and conservative town.

Is there any doubt she targets American institutions? Is there any doubt she is practicing "impact journalism"? Is there any doubt she finds what she wants to find?

 

[LongTimeListener]

Here's something I've been wondering:

Let's say this story unfolds as it did before the Rolling Stone reporter got involved -- and that, instead of turning a blind eye, UVA administrators did take the matter seriously as prescribed by current best practices on many campuses. They convened their judicial panel of professors and/or administrative types, investigated (but not an actual investigation with legal limits and powers), and adjudicated. Some or all of the accused were suspended or expelled.

Big problem now, yes?

Just wondering, because that's what is happening on campuses around the nation.

 

[goalmouth]

The blunder in all this was that RS agreed to publish the story as pitched by the author. Tail wags the dog. My local weekly birdcage liner doesn't do that. Fiasco doesn't begin to describe it.

 

[YankeeFan]

The blunder in all this was that RS agreed to publish the story as pitched by the author.

The Times says the article originated with a "feeling" that Dana and other editors had. So, she didn't pitch them on it. But, they knew who they were choosing, and they let her run with it.

Jann Wenner, a founder of Rolling Stone and its publisher, declined repeatedly to be interviewed, or to offer any comment. But in the interview Friday, Mr. Dana said the article stemmed from a feeling he and other senior editors had over summer that the issue of unpunished campus rapes would make a compelling and important story.

They decided to assign Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a contributing editor who has also written for GQ and The New Yorker, and who has been nominated for two National Magazine awards, according to her website. Ms. Erdely did not return calls and messages seeking comment. But she has said publicly that she sought out the right story, on the right campus, and that she found what she was looking for in Jackie.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/business/media/rolling-stone-tries-to-regroup-after-campus-rape-article-is-disputed.html