Rolling Stone Complaint

I was unable to open the link to the complaint from the Rolling Stone case, and thus don't expect full credit for this homework piece. I was in class when we discussed the story and the complaint, so I'll go off of what I remember.

I know that this was a defamation case. A journalist with the Rolling Stone trusted a student at Virginia University who said she was gang raped at a fraternity. The journalist did not fact check or make sure that the student was telling the truth. This story made it through all editorial hoops and ended up being published, despite Jackie never identifying her attacker. The story also made it seem as though Dean Eramo had not done her job and had kept Jackie from seeking justice in order to make Virginia University look safer.

After publication of the story, the journalist was able to get a name from Jackie. The journalist attempted to look up the name, only to find that Jackie didn't even know how to spell his last name. A photo she provided ended up being of someone from her high school that actually went to college in a different state. It was clear that whoever Jackie was saying that her alleged attacker was did not exist.

After the Washington Post proved that the alleged rape could not have happened as the Rolling Stone stated, significant damage had already been done to Eramo. She had not lost her job completely, but she had been moved to a different department at the University which saddened her.

She also had become the recipient of various forms of hate filled comments towards her, because people thought she was a terrible person. Because of this, Eramo sued for defamation. Rolling Stone and Eramo reached a settlement, ending the trial.

Rolling Stone retracted the original piece, and published another about what went wrong. They explained how before it was published, the journalist and various fact checkers had spoken with Jackie and had no doubt that she was telling the truth. It was only after publication that they began to notice that Jackie didn't have a description or correct name for the man she was accusing to be the ring-leader in the rape. As soon as they had lost confidence in their source, Rolling Stone retracted the piece, but it had already reached a huge audience.