Four months after the publication of an infamous Rolling Stone piece depicting a violent gang rape at one of the University of Virginia’s fraternities, and the magazine’s subsequent retraction due to numerous inconsistencies and gross journalistic malpractice (see Philip Terzian’s “A Credulous Press Feeds the PC Mob” from THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s December 22, 2014 issue), the Charlottesville police department announced their investigation’s findings this afternoon.
From the Associated Press:
Longo said Jackie first described a sexual assault in May 2013 when she met with a dean about an academic issue, but “the sexual act was not consistent with what was described” in the Rolling Stone article. When she met with police, she didn’t want them to investigate the alleged assault.
She also refused to talk to police after the article was printed in November and ignited the national conversation about sexual assaults on college campuses. Discrepancies in the article were found by news organizations soon after it was published.
….
Longo said the case is suspended, not closed. He said the fact that investigators could not find evidence “doesn’t mean that something terrible didn’t happen to Jackie.”
Investigators spoke to about 70 people, including friends of the accuser and fraternity members, and spent hundreds of hours on the investigation, Longo said.
Several media outlets flocked to Charlottesville soon after the story was published to track down “Jackie,” fraternity members, and friends of Jackie mentioned in the article.
The Washington Post was one of the first to report on the holes in the story:
Not only did this person barely know Jackie, she reportedly used his picture as part of an elaborate catfishing ploy to make one of the friends mentioned in the article jealous. She allegedly created phone numbers and an email address and communicated with her friends pretending to be her new paramour.
From the Washington Times:
Mr. Stock told The Times that Jackie was “extremely sad” that Mr. Duffin would not escalate their relationship beyond a friendship. A few days later, Jackie told her three friends that she had an admirer in her chemistry class, the upperclassman she called Haven.
Mr. Stock said Jackie “was receptive to the whole idea” of the three texting with her new admirer, but noted that he found it “suspicious” that during the text exchanges, Haven “would always steer the conversation back to Ryan.”
The Rolling Stone piece went viral almost instantaneously, and many were quick to seize on this story as proof that fraternities at elite universities were responsible for a predatory environment. All fraternity activities were shut down for the rest of the semester. Investigations from the governor’s office on down were launched, and everyone — alumni, students, media — was up in arms.
Even after the story had fallen apart and Rolling Stone had apologized, when classes resumed in January, all fraternities had to sign on to new rules, including hiring security at each party, assigning three “sober brothers,” and not serving kegs or pre-mixed drinks. Sorority sisters also received a mandate from their national chapters not to attend opening semester fraternity parties.
In a few weeks, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism is expected to release its findings about the author’s reporting — an investigation that Rolling Stone requested it conduct. All the evidence that’s piled up against Sabrina Erdely’s shoddy journalism practices and unambiguous agenda should leave no surprise to its conclusion.
Whitney Blake is a 2006 graduate of the University of Virginia’s College of Arts & Sciences.
