Rolling Stone’s article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia was so riddled with problems it won the Poynter Institute’s “error of the year” award.
“It should go down as one of the most cautionary tales of confirmation bias in journalism,” Poynter’s Craig Silverman wrote. “It’s also an example of how to not to behave when your organization publishes a disastrous piece of reporting.” (Emphasis original.)
The article claimed that a young woman was gang raped as part of a fraternity initiation, but failed to interview the alleged rapists or the alleged victim’s friends who were portrayed as sociopaths. When other news organizations, specifically the Washington Post, did the work that Rolling Stone failed to do, it turned out the woman’s story could not be factual.
Silverman pointed out that, as with past winners, the initial problems with the article were made worse by the way the organization handled the situation. For Rolling Stone, the problem was compounded by a poorly worded “Note to Our Readers.”
“The first version of that letter also blamed [the accuser], saying that the magazine now realized its trust in her had been ‘misplaced,’ ” Silverman wrote. “After objections, the magazine removed that line — and didn’t acknowledge the after-the-fact scrubbing.”
Rolling Stone, in its letter, didn’t say what parts of the article were incorrect or how they would fix the article.
“It hunkered down and kept silent,” Silverman concluded. “Shameful.”
