Rolling Stone is rolling back its explosive story on campus rape.
The esteemed music mag apologized Friday, saying they have found holes in the account published last month of University of Virginia student Jackie, who told the magazine she was gang raped by several frat boys during a September 2012 party.
But the account was immediately hammered by critics, who attacked reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely for failing to contact the alleged attackers, members of the university's Phi Kappa Psi chapter.
'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,' Managing Editor Will Dana wrote in a letter posted Friday to the Rolling Stone website. '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.'
The Washington Post had interviewed Jackie, who asked for anonymity to protect her identity in speaking out, for a potential story. During those meetings, according to the newspaper, Jackie stood by her account given to Rolling Stone.
She told the magazine the sickening attack took place just four weeks into her freshman year at a 'date-function' thrown by the frat.
A junior who invited the victim to the shindig led her upstairs to a pitch-black room. Once inside the room, the woman detected movement, the article says.
In a flash, she was tripped, sending her crashing through a glass table. Then, she was pinned down and raped by a gang of some seven drunken, pot-smoking frat boys, the article says.
One of them even violated her with a beer bottle as the sweaty mob egged him on.
The victim eventually reported the rape to school administrators, the article says. But they took no action - even after she reported allegations from two other women who claimed to have been assaulted the same way by members of the same fraternity.
'I never asked for this' attention, she told the Washington Post in an interview. 'What bothers me is that so many people act like it didn't happen. It's my life. I have had to live with the fact that it happened every day for the last two years.'
But the fraternity chapter plans to issue a rebuttal to the article Friday after determining no party was held the night in question and because no frat member matches the descriptions provided.
Even close friends of Jackie have come to doubt her account after getting inconsistent stories, agreeing the woman likely suffered a traumatic experience - but not the one described.
'One of my biggest fears with these inconsistencies emerging is that people will be unwilling to believe survivors in the future,' Jackie's friend, Alex Pinkleton, a rape survivor herself, told the Washington Post. 'However, we need to remember that the majority of survivors who come forward are telling the truth.'
Jackie's story prompted the frat to suspend activities, an investigation by the Charlottesville, Va., police and condemnation from University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan.
sgoldstein@nydailynews.com
Posted by Unknown on Friday, December 5, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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