Was she raped? Rolling Stone doesn't know...

"An account of sexual assault in Rolling Stone magazine that shook the University of Virginia and horrified readers showed signs of crumbling on Friday as the magazine admitted to doubts about its report of a premeditated gang rape at a fraternity party and the fraternity issued its first rebuttal of some details.

Rolling Stone’s backpedaling came after several days of critiques that questioned aspects of its article about a woman who asked to be called Jackie, and concessions by campus activists against sexual assault that they had doubts about some parts of her account."  NY Times

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 It is true that drunken young women have been taken advantage of at frat parties.  I never belonged to a fraternity but I have heard rumors...  I suspect that this is an age old phenomenon.  One would think that mothers, aunts and indeed grandmothers would counsel the young against the notion that boozing it up at a private party in which the hosts are a crowd of sexually deprived young men is a good idea.  Nevertheless, young women continue to do just that.  In fact they are thrilled to be invited.

Having written that I think it is necessary to say that facts DO matter.  Rolling Stone libelled the university and this fraternity without sufficient fact checking and due diligence.  IMO, the fraternity should sue the newspaper.  There evidently was no social event at that house on the date specified.  That ought to make the lawsuit an easy project.  I suppose that the frat house could be re-painted or some other project devised.

This sounds a lot like the Duke rape fiasco a few years back.  The hysterical persecution of the suspects collapsed in that case just as this case is collapsing.  Unfortunately, the managers of Rolling Stone cannot be disbarred as the prosecutor was at Duke.

The desire to destroy the reputations of Southern schools like Duke, Washington and Lee, William and Mary, etc. is alive and well among the paladins of the left.  pl 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/us/rolling-stone-re-examines-its-account-of-virginia-rape.html?_r=0

Comments

[oofda]

What happened in re W&L?
Check the Washington Post today- at least three stories on the Rolling Stone fiasco.

[Tyler]

Steve Sailer and Richard Blow were the ones who got the ball rolling on exposing the inanity of the story here:

http://www.unz.com/isteve/how-skepticism-spread-about-the-rolling-stone-rape-story/

Lots of other good articles there about this.

I think its pretty telling that the Ivy educated jewess behind the hit piece didnt find what she was looking for at Harvard or Yale, but UVa was perfect (her words).

[Tyler]

Ill continue to point out that the author, Sabrina Rubin Erdley, admits she passed over the Ivies but UVa steeped in Greek life and Southern culture, was perfect for a story about about gangrape. The ability to play to her coastal elite audience's prejudices about white southerners being insane gang rapists probably fed into her decision to write a fictional hit piece as much as not wanting to have Harvard and Yale after her.

Id like to point out that UVa is also where Jesse Matthews killed Hannah Graham and is linked to 10 other sexual attacks, including several murder/rapes. So you have a very real story that got memory holed by the media while this one got press to the moon.

If you look at a mugshot of Jesse Matthews, you might have an idea why.
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I asked Tyler to expand on his previous comment about the author of the article. pl

[Edward Amame]

I haven't read the Rolling Stone article and haven't been following the rapes on campus issue all that closely, but my general impression has been that the media has been portraying rapes on college campuses as a NATIONWIDE problem, not a specifically southern one.

[Fred]

It appears that the woman at the center of the story should file suit too given the way Rolling Stone treated her. Does Pulitzer give an award for slander? Meanwhile the President of UVA hasn't issued any apology for her order of collective punishment based on this Rolling Stone "journalist's" writing.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/message-president-sullivan-regarding-sexual-violence
http://www.wset.com/story/27560591/uva-president-teresa-sullivan-issues-statement-on-rolling-stone-article

[Fred]

Tyler,

According to her website Ms. Erdley also teaches and lectures on writing and reporting. Too bad no one taught her ethics at Penn.

[DC]

No one should be surprised that RS story is being rebutted -- isn't that always what happens when lives, reputation, and money is at stake? That said, if you read the Fraternity's response so far, it too is fairly thin gruel. So what if there was not a "social event" scheduled for the night in question. As a former university student at a Virginia school, I can tell you that there is "always" a social event at the fraternities, and yes, the boys are always attempting to get the ladies liquored up in order to have a conjugal in the haze. I remember it was the job of the pledges to bring in as many freshman females as possible as many rotating cups of beer as necessary to accomplish the job. This practice is certainly not Gentlemanly, but also not criminal. But it does reveal a certain mindset that should be monitored. In this regard, I have a lot of stories I recall where a tightrope was being walked; but without boring you I think you get my point. The verdict of truth should be withheld, on both sides, until all the facts are in.

[kao_hsien_chih]

This is also much the same force as those at work at places like Ferguson, MO.

Distrust of the police, not without justification, is widespread among many people, not unlike the dislike of fraternities by liberal types (is this unique to just the Southern universities? This seems widespread everywhere.). But the causes celebres that they latch in to usually seem misguided where they demand kangaroo courts....

[Tyler]

Doing some more digging, seems like there is evidence to reason that Rubin is a serial fabulist.

https://heartiste.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/the-uva-false-rape-fabulists/#comment-635394

[Nightsticker]

Col Lang,

"Nevertheless, young women continue to do just that. In fact they are thrilled to be invited."

The upside of all this for the fraternity in
question is that as soon as the hysteria dies down and they
are permitted to resume their social schedule, invitations to their next party should be much sought after. Better yet,a sort of self selection process should ensure that the girls present are more likely to oblige than the general female student population. They will be another beneficiary of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Nightsticker
USMC 65-72
FBI 72-96

[no one]

Tyler, Always interested in the pulse of nation I read a variety of media of various political leanings. It's obvious that there is a strong bias - hell, a demonizing - against everything Southern; especially amongst the so called "socially conscious" PC left. The choice of UVA doesn't surprise me in the least, but I didn't know the backstory you bring to light.

I have ordered a Confederate flag decal (stainless banner) for the rear window of my old farm pickup just to piss off all the sanctimonious Yankees in NY.

[different clue]

Suing the Rolling Stone itself might make the RS and other hip cool with-it media outlets more careful about the factual foundation of stories. Expanding the suit to include the author of the story herself might make her and other young hip cool with-it reporters more careful about the factual foundation of their work product. (Some might notice that I didn't refer to the Rolling Stone itself as "young").

[nick b]

Col.,

Fraternities on any/every campus are an easy target, not just in the South. Just google 'fraternity scandal' and you'll find over a million entries and stories from across the country. It's been that way since before I was "Greek" almost thirty years ago.

Just this week I saw a headline about a 'fraternity house rape' at my Alma mater. Upon reading the story it turns out that the neither victim nor her alleged attackers were even students at the University, more so fraternity members. How they got to the party was not mentioned. But of course the headline read 'fraternity house rape' with the University's name.

I think the Duke fiasco was a different situation. That revolved around the Lacrosse team, not the fraternity system there. Also, I think it drew so much attention because the team was ranked #1 and seemed likely to win the NCAA championship that year.

It's a shame UVA has gotten so much bad press over this. I spent a fair amount of time in a couple of their fraternity houses in my undergrad years and thought they were great. They had a much stronger system than we did, and campus life there seemed more vibrant for it.

[Tyler]

Fred,

Eardley atteneded the same journalism class as the fabulist Stephen Glass. Birds of a feather.

[Tyler]

Duke Lacrosse was the MSM demanding a narrative narrative on steroids: preppy white southern boys gangraping black woman.

How much did you hear about Hannah Graham once it turned out her rapist/killer was a black man who is responsible for a slew of similar attacks?

If there's a problem with sexual attacks on women in higher education, its not blobde haired southern white boys doing it. That's an uncomfortable fact for the liberal,dominated MSM, so that's why these insane hysteria stories pop up and get promoted.

[turcopolier]

nick b

But it is so sweet if you can indulge your hatred for things Southern at the same time. pl

[nick b]

Tyler,

Rolling Stone is an equal opportunity Fraternity offender. A few years ago the Dartmouth Fraternity system got raked over the coals in their pages over a hazing scandal. In fact, Dartmouth fraternities have been a whipping boy for the press for years (My wife and my brother were both 'Greek' there). You don't have to look far to find a negative story about "Greek life" at any campus South, North, East or West. It comes with the territory.

[turcopolier]

DC

Which college were you greeked at? Seriously, you are saying that at every university every frat will be having a party every night? pl

[nick b]

Col.,

That may be the case, but it seems to me that the Fraternity system is regularly pilloried nationwide.

[nick b]

Tyler,

I still submit that the Duke fiasco has little or nothing to do with 'the South'. The team's Coach, who was forced to resign, grew up with me in a town in Connecticut. The three falsely accused players came from Long Island, Northern New Jersey and Bethesda, MD, respectively. These were not 'wild southern white boys'. Just white suburban Lacrosse players.

As for Hannah Graham's killer, I've heard nothing since the determination that Miss Graham Died under violent circumstances. Once the trial starts, I'm sure it will be all over the media again. Look back to the tragic murder of Yeardley Love at UVA and all the column inches that got once the trial started.

[Tyler]

No one,

Amazing how the stars and bars went from Neil Young waving it on stage to the equivalent of flying an SS battle flag in the space of what, three generations?

[Cee]

All,

I hate hysterical journalism. I was a victims rights volunteer for years...local domestic violence shelter, accompanied women to court and lectured on stranger danger to children in schools and it ticks me off that these kinds of things diminish legitimate claims of abuse.
Let me add that I'm not buying these charges against Bill Cosby now either. Who in the HELL goes into a hotel room with a married man? Who waits 40 years to complain?
One women wrote a book about bedding a thousand men and I'm supposed to believe her botox boo-hooing now? Another chick was a Playboy Bunny. Are you freaking kidding me?!?

[Cee]

All,

Let me share something. When I was a teen a close friend came to me to tell me that she had been assaulted but didn't want to tell her father or go to the police. Soooo, I leashed up one of my Doberman Pinschers and we went to find the young man. Trust me! He never assaulted another women in LIFE!
This crap about waiting years is just that. Crap!

[Larry Kart]

I hold no brief for Susan Rubin Erdley, who seems to be quite a creepy piece of work, but what's with that "jewess"? Her religious-ethnic background is causal? Journalistic fabulists come in all shapes and sizes.

[turcopolier]

LK

You are right. I should have edited that out. pl