UVA and the alleged frat rape - Rolling Stone backpedals

[jr/shotglass]

I was interested by the part where Indiana State welcomed the player in question into their program (for a while).

 

[franticscribe]

Yeah, that was interesting. It didn't really come close to answering how that happened though.

 

[The Big Ragu]

It's a defamation suit. The standard, putting it in the most simple terms, is "reckless disregard for the truth."

I am sure she is represented, and they know something I probably don't about the law (and the mess the court they are in has probably made of the law). ... but I can't see how you are helping yourself, if you say, "It wasn't a mistake to rely on someone who was so emotionally fragile. ... It was a mistake to rely on someone whose intent was to deceive me."

In a defamation case, even if you reported something false, you can get off just fine if you demonstrate that you made good faith efforts to independently corroborate what you were reporting. You need to show that you reported the heck out of it, contacted lots of independent sources who could shed light on it, made very good faith efforts to verify every fact independently. ... and yet still somehow got it wrong.

It's not good enough to say that you made a huge mistake relying on someone whose intent was to deceive you. That is the exact point in a defamation or libel suit. It's your responsibility to NOT rely on just one person's account, and when it comes to charges that explosive, you have even more responsibility to cover your tracks.

I am not saying anything others haven't said on this thread. But it just seems to me that is a horrible thing to say at your defamation trial. It reads to me like you are essentially admitting your liability.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

http://nypost.com/2016/10/28/rolling-stone-publisher-apologizes-to-embattled-uva-dean/

"I'm very, very sorry. It was never meant to ever happen this way to you," Wenner told Nicole Eramo in taped testimony played at the
$7.85 million defamation trial.
"And believe me, I've suffered as much as you have," he said. "And I know what it's like. I hope that this whole thing hadn't happened but it is, and it's what we live with."
Eramo claims the November 2014 story "A Rape on Campus" portrayed her as the "chief villain" who was cruelly indifferent to gang-rape allegations made by a former UVA student identified as "Jackie."
The publisher said he disagreed with former managing editor Will Dana's decision to retract the entire piece in April 2015, explaining that he still stands by everything in it except for Jackie's account.
"It was a full retraction of our support for all the Jackie stuff in that article," he insisted.

 

[LongTimeListener]

No amount yet, at least that I can see in this story.

Jury finds reporter, Rolling Stone responsible for defaming U-Va. dean with gang rape story

 

[doctorquant]

"This young woman was very good at telling this story," [Rolling Stone's attorney] said. "Dean Eramo believed her. . . .Yet we are the ones being tried, in a sense, for having believed her."

Ooof. Your client's not on the dock for having believed her. Your client's on the dock for not much giving a shirt whether she should be believed or not.

 

[YankeeFan]

 

[YankeeFan]

 

[franticscribe]

The finding of actual malice not only allows the verdict, but it also opens the door for the jury to find punitive damages. The size of this judgment could get really ugly.

 

[YankeeFan]

 

[FileNotFound]

The finding of actual malice not only allows the verdict, but it also opens the door for the jury to find punitive damages. The size of this judgment could get really ugly.

Not that anybody'll ever collect, given that Ms. Erdely is likely headed to the permanently unemployed list.

 

[Vombatus]

Not that anybody'll ever collect, given that Ms. Erdely is likely headed to the permanently unemployed list.

I've been wondering about this. When you get a massive judgement against you, I guess you are allowed to have some money for subsistence - food, clothing, shelter, nothing extravagant, but you probably are not likely to be headed to Disneyworld.

???