Rolling Stone is now retracting an article it had written about a girl who claimed to be gang-raped on UVA’s campus. According to Fox News, Rolling Stone how now uncovered information that discredits its own article after the initial article caused protests and vandalism. UVA has had to suspend all of its fraternities until the new year.
Rolling Stone says their trust in the so-called victim was ‘misplaced’ but they didn’t even bother to question the accused and now they are blaming it on the victim’s wishes:
Because of the sensitive nature of Jackie’s story, we decided to honor her request not to contact the man she claimed orchestrated the attack on her nor any of the men she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her.
Here is their apology:
In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.
Here’s the lowdown from Fox News on the story: