, Columnist
Lessons From the Rolling Stone Debacle
It would be absurd to insist that what happened in the case of the Rolling Stone story somehow stands in for every journalist, activist or editor who deals with rape.
Rolling Stone, and managing editor Will Dana, screwed up.
Photographer: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for The Norman Mailer CenterThe saga of Rolling Stone's story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia continues, with more fine reporting from the Washington Post. This is possibly the worst installment yet. As Hanna Rosin notes, it "strongly implies, without outright saying so, that the gang rape at the center of Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s article might be fabricated." Washington Post got in touch with the friends who saw her the night of the alleged rape, and they tell a very different story from the one that Jackie does. I'm going to let Rosin narrate, rather than try to construct my own paraphrase:
A few things are worth noting here.