Skip to footer

Virginia fraternity sues Rolling Stone over rape story

The magazine also faces lawsuits from a university administrator who alleges she was defamed and from three University of Virginia graduates targeted by a discredited article about an alleged gang rape at their fraternity.

|
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
This Nov. 24, 2014, file photo, shows the Phi Kappa Psi house at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. Greek organizations at the school have until Friday, Jan. 16, 2015, to agree to new drinking rules as a condition for ending a temporary ban on social activities, which UVa. President Teresa A. Sullivan imposed following a November Rolling Stone article describing a campus culture that fosters violence against women. The article was later discredited by the magazine's editors, and on Monday the fraternity sued the magazine.
  • By Ian Simpson Reuters

A University of Virginia fraternity sued Rolling Stone magazine on Monday for $25 million in damages over a discredited article about a 2012 gang rape at the fraternity.

The Phi Kappa Psi chapter filed the defamation lawsuit in Charlottesville, Virginia, Circuit Court against Rolling Stone and writer Sabrina Erdely, the fraternity said in a statement.

"Rolling Stone published the article with reckless disregard for the truth," it said.

The lawsuit contends that Rolling Stone and Erdely wanted to advance a narrative of college campus sexual violence by depicting a rape, whether it was true or not, the statement said.

The 9,000-word story published in November 2014 said that a female student, identified by her real name, Jackie, endured a gang rape at the fraternity in late 2012.

The story caused a national furor and sparked demonstrations at the school about 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Washington. The Phi Kappa Psi house was vandalized and the school shut downfraternity and sorority activities for the rest of the semester.

The magazine, known for its pop music coverage, retracted its story in December after citing discrepancies in Jackie's account. It admitted that it never sought comment from the seven men accused of the alleged rape.

Charlottesville police said in March they had found no evidence to back up Jackie's story.

A review of the story by the Columbia University School of Journalism commissioned by Rolling Stone found in April that the magazine failed to follow basic journalistic safeguards.

A spokesman for Rolling Stone could not be immediately reached for comment.

Rolling Stone is owned by Jann Wenner, who founded it in 1967. The privately held company, Wenner Media LLC, also publishes the magazines US Weekly and Men's Journal.

Rolling Stone also faces lawsuits from a university administrator who alleges she was defamed and from three University of Virginia graduates who were members of the fraternity.

Fraternities and sororities are social clubs at many U.S. colleges. They often have their own housing.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Virginia fraternity sues Rolling Stone over rape story
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/1109/Virginia-fraternity-sues-Rolling-Stone-over-rape-story
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe