We dont know where, Like what you read here? That's terrible for journalism", "Should there have been firings at Rolling Stone? [156], Additionally, the Poynter Institute named the story as the "Error of the Year" in journalism. She said: "I think we've gone backwards 30 years. "[27] Four participants who were sitting on the steps to the Phi Kappa Psi house were arrested on trespassing charges for refusing to move when police officers asked them to leave. [37], The Washington Post reporters later interviewed the accuser at the center of Erdely's story and two of the friends that Rolling Stone said she had met on the night of the incident. Many in the media were quick to link that story to stories about my husband until that story unwound. "[108], Over the course of 4 months, the Charlottesville Police spoke to 70 people, including Jackie's friends, Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brothers, and employees at the UVA Aquatic Center, where Jackie worked. They arrived "minutes later" and found her on the corner next to the building. [168] On June 13, 2017, the lawsuit was settled for $1.65 million. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Lydia Teasley of the Negro Leagues Family Alliance about honoring baseball's past and her father Ron "Schoolboy" Teasley about his own history in the Negro Leagues. ", "Why Did Rolling Stone Writer Choose UVA, Not Vanderbilt, for Gang Rape Expos? Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo explained, "We would've loved to have had Jackie come in and tell us what happened so we can obtain justice even if the facts were different. It was absurd. Obviously, they're older now and we are doing an . The collateral damage included a UVa dean, as well as the entire Greek system there and, well, no one thinks a lot of Teresa Sullivan anymore either. At the chapter house party, Jackie alleged in the article, her date led her to a bedroom where she was gang raped by several fraternity members as part of their initiation ritual. Teresa Sullivan, the president of UVa, promptly shut down all the fraternities and, bizarrely, the sororities as well (don't ask), in a "ready, fire, aim" response, without allowing even the Phi Psis the due process to point out all the inaccuracies that made the article suspect. "[172], Law & Order: SVU featured an episode titled "Devastating Story" in its 16th season whose plot was based on the UVA case. [113][116] Ultimately, the report determined that Rolling Stone had exhibited confirmation bias and failed to perform basic fact checking by relying excessively on the accuser's account without verifying it through other means. [125] He added, "False accusations have been extremely damaging to our entire organization, but we can only begin to imagine the setback this must have dealt to survivors of sexual assault. "[158] In February 2016, the judge in the lawsuit ordered Jackie to appear at a deposition on April 5, 2016. [96][97] Emily Renda, who was a University of Virginia student at the time of the alleged attack and in whom Jackie also confided, said that she had become suspicious as to the veracity of Jackie's story prior to the Rolling Stone report, commenting to a The Washington Post editor: "I don't even know what I believe. Sabrina Erdely would also continue to write for Rolling Stone. "[77] Merlan had also labeled journalist Richard Bradley's doubts about the article a "giant ball of shit". "[56] But on December 5, 2014, Rolling Stone published an online apology, stating that there appeared to be "discrepancies" in the accounts of Erdely's sources and that their trust in the accuser was misplaced. [173], In May 2022, an off-Broadway play adapted from the UVA case and resulting legal battles titled Retraction premiered in New York City at Theatre Four at Theatre Row. On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone published the now retracted article by Sabrina Erdely titled "A Rape on Campus" about an alleged gang rape of a University of Virginia (UVA) student, Jackie Coakley. . "[144] Writing for Bloomberg, Zara Kessler observed that, "suddenly, every Cosby accuser is a potential 'Jackie'although we don't yet know precisely what it means to be a 'Jackie.' [1][5] The article claimed that a UVA student Jackie Coakley had been taken to a party hosted by UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity by a fellow student. The story portrayed University staff members as manipulative and callous toward victims of sexual assault. Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu. Eramo was awarded $3 million by a jury who concluded that Rolling Stone defamed her with actual malice,[11] and Rolling Stone settled the lawsuit with the fraternity for $1.65 million. [65] The Columbia Journalism Review called the apology "a grudging act of contrition". The main entrance is in the middle of the building's west side. "[43] Jackie forwarded messages from "Monahan", and "Monahan" exchanged messages with Jackie's friends, including sending a picture of "himself" directly to Ryan Duffin. Given the anti-violence, anti-rape climate we are in, it is. A woman named Jackie Coakley (now McGovern), who was a student at UVa at the time, had an issue with a boy who was not paying her enough attention, or didn't see her as a romantic interest, or something like that. In 2014, the magazine published an article filled with allegations from student Jackie Coakley, who at the time attended the University of Virginia, claiming Coakley had been gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity party. At any rate, you surely remember. . The Washington Times determined "Drew"'s "telephone" and "Blackberry" numbers were in fact "Internet phone numbers that enable the user to make calls or send SMS text messages to telephones from a computer or iPad while creating the appearance that they are coming from a real phone". No effort short of all that qualifies as journalism. Jill Geisler in the Columbia Journalism Review reacted to Dana's statement by saying, "At a time when humility should guide a leader's comments, that quote carries the aroma of arrogance. [117] The report also states that the article misled readers with quotes where attribution was unclear and used pseudonyms inappropriately as a way to address these shortcomings. "[52] According to news articles covering lawsuits resulting from the Rolling Stone article, Jackie concocted the Haven Monahan persona in a catfishing scheme directed at Duffin, who had not responded to romantic overtures that Jackie had directed at him. And no one, from a university president on down, or on up, gets the notion that due process for the accused is actually a core principle of our justice system, to be applied before punishment is meted out.So where is good old Jackie Coakley these days?Well, she is married and is now "Jackie McGovern", living her life, la-la-la, scot-free despite being the central figure in a mammoth fraud that has cost people their jobs, institutions their reputations, and a magazine a spitload of money.And nobody nobody appears willing to take her to task, either in a civil suit (Rolling Stone might want to think about that) or in a criminal case, given that she perpetrated a massive fraud with some pretty serious consequences and material damages.Why not?I have no assumption to make, as to whether she has not been sued because she is a shallow pocket, incapable of affording a large settlement in a civil suit. "[84], After two Vanderbilt University football players were convicted of rape on January 27, 2015, Richard Bradley, who was the first mainstream journalist to question the Rolling Stone story, wrote a blogpost titled "Why Didn't Sabrina Rubin Erdely Write about Vanderbilt?" [12] In light of the findings, Erik Wemple of The Washington Post pronounced the story "a complete crock". The failure encompassed reporting, editing, editorial supervision and fact-checking. The bride is the daughter of the late Norman and Elsie Miles Armstrong of Pickens and stepmother, the late Nell Bennett Armstrong. "[132], According to the Columbia report, "Allen W. Groves, the University dean of students, and Nicole Eramo, an assistant dean of students, separately wrote to the authors of this report that the story's account of their actions was inaccurate." "[69][70] Around the same time, WCAV of Charlottesville, Virginia, published the audio of Jackie's 2014 statements to Erdely. [10] The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism audited the editorial processes that culminated in the article being published. [42], The article uses the pseudonym "Drew" to refer to a third-year student at the University of Virginia who takes Jackie to the fraternity party where the alleged rape takes place. Such false depictions reinforce the reluctance sexual assault victims already feel about reporting their experience, lest they be doubted or ignored. [71], The Washington Post journalist Erik Wemple criticized the story's graphic details of the alleged crime and said that it was hard to believe due to the "diabolical" description. Although the discussion was lengthy, the reporter elected not to include any of the information from the interview in her article. And in this case, our judgement was wrong. Rolling Stone was hardly innocent, but this whole episode cost them whatever reputation remained.All of this, we might point out, happened only because a petulant, amoral female student wanted attention, and because the climate against sexual assault has risen to where the assumption is of guilt rather than innocence. [16] Someone gets between her legs. A former student who graduated in 2013 said "the day [the article] came out was the most emotionally grueling of my life. [28] A local business owner expressed support of non-violent demonstrations and told The Cavalier Daily that "The only way thing[s] change is if you talk about what's happening. [129], The Washington Post reported that the members of Phi Kappa Psi "went into hiding for weeks after their home was vandalized with spray paint calling them rapists and bricks that broke their windows", and had to escape to hotels. [83] Christina Hoff Sommers, being interviewed by John Stossel for Reason, commented that the story "proved to be a sort of gothic fantasy, a male-demonizing fantasy. What distinguished the UVA story from anything else ever reported was that the assault did not involve drugs or alcohol, required elaborate planning, and involved so many people that the perps could not have reasonably expected to get away with ita confluence of factors that caused the allegations to have substantially more in common with ones that ultimately proved to be false, like the Duke lacrosse case and Tawana Brawley incident. New evidence submitted in an ongoing lawsuit against Rolling Stone suggest that the legal team of Jackie Coakley, the University of Virginia (UVA) student responsible for a massive gang rape hoax, has been withholding evidence from an ongoing lawsuit. [147][148][149] Harvey A. Silverglate in The Boston Globe referenced the Rolling Stone article in opining that the college sexual assault "scare" follows a long tradition of runaway, exaggerated social epidemics that "have ruined innocent lives and corrupted justice. [165], On November 9, 2015, Phi Kappa Psi filed a $25 million lawsuit against Rolling Stone in state court "to seek redress for the wanton destruction caused to Phi Kappa Psi by Rolling Stone's intentional, reckless, and unethical behavior". The three friends disclosed to ABC News their actual names Alex Stock's pseudonym was "Andy", Kathryn Hendley's was "Cindy", Ryan (Duffin) was "Randall"[100] and went on record that on the night of the alleged event Jackie told the two men that she was forced to fellate five men while a sixth stood by. "[116] ", to become a weapon of revenge.Where, we ask, are the Federal cops? And no one, from a university president on down, or on up, gets the notion that due process for the accused is actually a core principle of our justice system, to be applied before punishment is meted out. "[120], In response to these statements, Megan McArdle wrote in Bloomberg View, "Rolling Stone can't even apologize right. Flanagan noted that "what Rolling Stone has pushed me into is that I have now become someone who is on the side of fraternities and defending fraternities. But as Smerconish wrote, "[S]he did not talk to all of Jackie's friends. I believed it to be true at the time. Wemple posited that the claims presented by the magazine were so incredible that editors should have called for further inquiry before publication. accuser an 'expert fabulist storyteller', "Rolling Stone Can't Even Apologize Right", "Will Dana, Rolling Stone's Managing Editor, to Depart", "Editor who oversaw Rolling Stone's rape story departs magazine, four months too late", "Rolling Stone Appoints a New Managing Editor", "UVA's Phi Psi Responds to Cleared Rape Allegations", "UVA Fraternity Considers Legal Action Over Rolling Stone Article", "UVA Fraternity Exploring Legal Options to Address 'Extensive Damage Caused by Rolling Stone', "Police unable to verify 'Rolling Stone' rape story", "President Teresa A. Sullivan Statement Regarding Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Report", "U-Va. Phi Psi members speak about impact of discredited gang rape allegations", "Rolling Stone apologises for Virginia rape story", "U-Va. board leader denounces 'drive-by journalism' of Rolling Stone's rape article", "Dean Coll and Dean Coronel Ltr from AW Groves March 6, 2015-2.pdf", "Here Are Some Big Things The Rolling Stone Story About Rape At UVA Got Right", "Prepared Remarks for Presidential Address on the University", "U.Va. Jackie's account generated much media attention, and UVA President Teresa Sullivan suspended all fraternities. "[29], Richard Bradley, editor-in-chief of Worth magazine, was among the first mainstream journalists to question the Rolling Stone article, in a blog entry written on November 24, 2014. "[80] An editorial in the Boston Herald declared: "a fifth-grader would've done some basic fact-checking before potentially ruining men's lives" before repeating the call for the firing of Rolling Stone staff involved in the story. Oh, the earth spun a little slower, or faster metaphors fail me when it comes to stuff like this. [57] A subsequent tweet sent by Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana offered further comment on Erdely's story: "[W]e made a judgementthe kind of judgement reporters and editors make every day. Emails filed in federal court on Friday show that the Rolling Stone reporter who wrote a now-debunked article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia told colleagues that "our worst nightmare" became a reality after she realized the main source for the story was lying. We all remember the tumult at the University of Virginia five years back. [13][14] The UVA student, identified only as "Jackie" by the magazine, had been taken to a party by a fellow student, hosted at UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity during 2012. "[51], "Haven Monahan", as reported by T. Rees Shapiro, "ultimately appeared to be a combination of names belonging to people Jackie interacted with while in high school in Northern Virginia. Forward it to your friends! She decided to get the attention she wanted, by making up a completely baseless story about having been gang-raped at a fraternity house, Phi Kappa Psi (colloquially referred to as Phi Psi).She was then connected to the good folks at Rolling Stone magazine, which ignored all journalistic standards by publishing the account calling her just "Jackie" to protect her identity, mind you without doing a shred of research to validate any of the facts of the story. He wrote:[87]. After the Charlottesville Police made their official report, Wemple said: "What is left of the Rolling Stone piece? Jackie Coakley bears no responsibility whatsoever for this hoax and the blame lies entirely with Rolling Stone Managazine even though she lied about nearly every single detail of her account and this may not even be the first time she's done it! "[62], Rolling Stone's lawyer told jurors in a 2016 trial that Rolling Stone was victim of a "hoax" and a "fraud", and added with regard to Jackie: "the magazine's editorial staff was no match for Jackie 'she deceived us, and we do know it was purposeful'. After leaving the party around 3 a.m., allegedly with bruises and blood stained clothes, Jackie called her three best friends, "Andy", "Randall" and "Cindy", for support. "[91], Within days following the unraveling of the Rolling Stone story, the North American Interfraternity Conference, the National Panhellenic Council, and the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee demanded that the University of Virginia "immediately reinstate operations for all fraternity and sorority organizations on campus" and issue an apology to Greek students. After other journalists investigated the article's claims and found significant discrepancies, Rolling Stone issued multiple apologies for the story. Fraternity Files $25 Million Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone", "Lawsuits Against Rolling Stone Move Forward Despite Objection", Fraternity chapter at U-Va. to settle suit against Rolling Stone for $1.65 million, "Lawsuit over debunked Rolling Stone rape article revived on appeal", "Street Artist Sabo Blasts Lena Dunham, Bill Clinton in Fake Rolling Stone Covers", "RETRACTION by David Gutierrez Opens On Theatre Row", "A lawyer takes to the stage to state his case", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Rape_on_Campus&oldid=1152555607, An alleged gang rape at a college fraternity, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 23:20. I used to not think this way ~8 years ago, but there have just been too . [8][9], On January 12, 2015, Charlottesville Police officials told UVA that an investigation had failed to find any evidence confirming the events in the Rolling Stone article. Jan. 9, 1954 - June 5, 2019 Jackie Coakley, beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister, aunt and friend, passed away June 5, 2019 in Portland. Had they done so, of course, they might have realized that some of the names in the account didn't exist, and that there was no party at all at the Phi Psi house on the night Miss Coakley claimed to have been assaulted at, she claimed, a party.Rolling Stone ran the story anyway, to their journalistic and financial detriment. [154] According to Miltenberg, he specializes in "defamation and complex internet and First Amendment issues". In May 2013, Jackie reported the sexual assault to dean and head of UVA's Sexual Misconduct Board, Nicole Eramo, who, according to a recap in New York magazine, offered three options: "file a criminal complaint with the police, file a complaint with the school, or face her attackers with Eramo present to tell them how she feels". Circuit Court filed November 9, 2015), Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, North American Interfraternity Conference, Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee, "Rolling Stone and UVA: The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Report", "Rolling Stone Faces Millions More In Defamation Charges", "Fake News: Postmodernism By Another Name", "Dan Liljenquist: News stories about fake news stories", "Rolling Stone, Sabrina Rubin Erdely deemed liable in dean's defamation suit for University of Virginia rape story", "Lawyers in Rolling Stone lawsuit file new evidence that 'Jackie' created fake persona", "How the Retracted Rolling Stone Article 'A Rape on Campus' Came to Print", "Rolling Stone's investigation: 'A failure that was avoidable', "UVA dean awarded $3M in Rolling Stone magazine case", "Rolling Stone Settles Last Remaining Lawsuit Over UVA Rape Story", "The Misguided Idea Of The War Over Campus Sexual Assault", "A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA", "Everything We Know About the UVA Rape Case [Updated]", "Key elements of Rolling Stone's U-Va gang rape allegations in doubt", "Sabrina Rubin Erdely, woman behind Rolling Stone's explosive U-Va alleged rape story", "UVA's Sullivan reflects on tenure, Rolling Stone controversy, student privacy laws", "Rolling Stone never asked U-Va. about specific gang rape allegations, according to newly released e-mails and audio recording", "Students claiming responsibility for Phi Kappa Psi vandalism submit anonymous letter", "U-Va president suspends fraternities until Jan. 9 in wake of rape allegations", "Protest outside Phi Kappa Psi house leads to four arrests", "Hundreds protest at UVA; student says memorial to victims vandalized", "The Governing Board of the Inter-Fraternity Council at UVA", "Author of Rolling Stone article on alleged U-Va. rape didn't contact accused assailants for her report", "Rolling Stone whiffs in reporting on alleged rape", "McAuliffe urges investigation at U-Va. after, "Official Statement from the Virginia Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity at the University of Virginia", "Magazine's Account of Gang Rape on Virginia Campus Comes Under Scrutiny", "Rolling Stone Tries to Regroup After Campus Rape Article is Disputed", "Updated apology digs bigger hole for Rolling Stone", "U-Va. remains resolved to address sexual violence as, "There's More Bizarre Evidence That UVA Student Jackie's Alleged Rapist Doesn't Exist", "Friends' accounts differ from victim in UVA rape story CNN.com", "More problems with the Rolling Stone piece", "U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault", "U.Va. Later media analysis of photos Jackie showed her friends of her date demonstrated that they were pictures taken from the public social media profile of a former high-school classmate of Jackie, who was not a student of the University of Virginia, did not live in the Charlottesville area, and was out of state at an athletic competition the day of the alleged attack. Prior to the alleged event, Jackie provided evidence of her relationship with "Drew" to her friends by supplying a phone number for "Drew", with whom Jackie's friends subsequently exchanged messages. "Under the scenario cited by Erdely", Wemple wrote, "the Phi Kappa Psi members are not just criminal sexual-assault offenders, they're criminal sexual-assault conspiracists, planners, long-range schemers. [17] Gary Pleasants, Phi Kappa Psi has been cleared; "We found no basis to believe that an incident occurred at that fraternity, so there's no reason to keep them suspended. For the first time since 2002, applications to the university dropped. Quoting its legal consultant Mark Eiglarsh, the network reported that if Jackie "allegedly lied and that perpetrator suffered injury as a result, she could be sued for damages". Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu. She is immediately tackled by one of the eight men waiting in the pitch darkness. Eramo filed a $7.5 million defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone and Erdely last year. [131], One month after the publication of the Rolling Stone article, the Rector of the University of Virginia, George Keith Martin, accused the magazine of "drive-by journalism" when he stated, "Like a neighborhood thrown into chaos by drive-by violence, our tightly knit community has experienced the full fury of drive-by journalism in the 21st century. That's what they'd do if a man did this, like how Jussie Smollet was shamed by everyone for his hoax. [44] However, media investigations have determined that no student named "Haven Monahan" has attended the University of Virginia;[45] the portrait of "Haven Monahan" is an image of a classmate of Jackie's in high school, who has never attended the University of Virginia;[46] the three telephone numbers through which "Haven Monahan" contacted Jackie's friends are registered "internet telephone numbers" that "enable the user to make calls or send SMS text messages to telephones from a computer or iPad while creating the appearance that they are coming from a real phone"[47] and love letters written by Jackie and forwarded by "Haven Monahan" to Ryan Duffin are largely plagiarized from scripts of the TV series Dawson's Creek and Scrubs. Complaint, Virginia Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity v. Rolling Stone LLC, No. New evidence submitted in an ongoing lawsuit against Rolling Stone suggest that the legal team of Jackie Coakley, the University of Virginia (UVA) student responsible for a massive gang rape hoax, has been withholding evidence from an ongoing lawsuit. In the episode, Heather fabricates a gang rape at a fraternity. [40] In fact, her failure to speak to the three friends in whom Jackie supposedly confided immediately after the alleged incident was perhaps the most egregious of a string of journalistic failures. In May 2014, with Drew about to graduate, she still didn't feel ready to file a complaint . Subscribe please (its cheap!) [170] The lawsuit was settled on December 21, 2017. "[119], Jann Wenner added that "Will Dana, the magazine's managing editor, and the editor of the article, Sean Woods, would keep their jobs." She began by elaborately concocting electronic evidence for a dream date suitor she called Haven Monahan to entrap a freshman boy named Ryan in a unwanted romantic relationship. . Some students "actually had to leave the room while they were reading [the article] because they were so upset." Please. In addition, several windows were broken with bottles and cinder blocks, and police officials said that the group received "disparaging messages" on social media. Where, we ask, are the Federal cops? "[74][75] Lauren Kling of the Poynter Institute criticized Rolling Stone for "blaming [the] source" instead of taking ownership of their own errors. "[90] Writing in Politico two days after the "story fell apart", Julia Horowitz, deputy editor of the university's campus newspaper, described the feeling among students: "The campusrelatively oversaturated with emotion after a semester of significant traumafeels as if it is on stand-by, poised in anticipation of where the next torrent of news will take us. [46] In her remarks, she said, "Before the Rolling Stone story was discredited, it seemed to resonate with some people simply because it confirmed their darkest suspicions about universitiesthat administrations are corrupt; that today's students are reckless and irresponsible; that fraternities are hot-beds of deviant behavior. [6][7] In a deposition given in 2016, Jackie stated that she believed her story at the time. She was then connected to the good folks at Rolling Stone magazine, which ignored all journalistic standards by publishing the account calling her just "Jackie" to protect her identity, mind you without doing a shred of research to validate any of the facts of the story. In the post, he asked: "Is Vanderbilt just not as sexy a story as UVA? [17][20], Within hours of the article's publication, UVA president Teresa Sullivan had called the governor's chief of staff and the Charlottesville police chief to start preparing a response. [19] Two years later, in search of a college student to feature in a story about sexual assaults that occur at a prestigious university, Erdely interviewed Renda, who suggested Jackie for the story and made the introduction. The revelations comes in a court filing made Friday by by attorneys representing UVA dean Nicole Eramo. However, that statement seemed to contradict an earlier assertion the accuser had made to The Washington Post, in which she stated: "I know it was Phi [Kappa] Psi, because a year afterward, my friend pointed out the building to me. "Drew" gives "instruction and encouragement" to the seven rapists. According to Goldberg, "It is an account of a sober, well-planned gang rape by seven fraternity pledges at the direction of two members. [92] On December 8, the University of Virginia restated their original decision that the suspensions would be lifted on the resumption of classes in the new term, on January 9. By December 5, 2014, Christopher Pivik, a former member of Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Virginia, had retained attorney Andrew Miltenberg. So it took me a day or two to admit that I found many of Erdely's details unrecognizable. [160] However, on April 2, 2016, the judge denied the motions and ordered Jackie to appear for a deposition on April 6, to be held at a secret location. Very little. He eventually claims he met her in the hospital. [166][167] In September 2016, the magazine sought to have the lawsuit dismissed; however, a circuit court judge ruled that the suit could proceed. [109][110], After the details in "A Rape on Campus" began to unravel, Rolling Stone's publisher Jann Wenner commissioned Columbia University's School of Journalism to investigate the failures behind the publication of the article. [34] The Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple rejected Erdely's statement, saying that the severity of the accusations she was reporting required "every possible step to reach out and interview them, including e-mails, phone calls, certified letters, FedEx letters, UPS letters and, if all of that fails, a knock on the door.