Washington Post Blogger On UVA Rape Story: Rolling Stone 'Would Never Live It Down' If The Story Is False
Philadelphia (CBS) – Rolling Stone magazine is under heavy scrutiny for the journalistic practices behind a story it published about a supposed culture of rape at the University of Virginia.
The author of the story, Sabrina Rubin Erderly, is being criticized for not attempting to speak with any of the alleged unnamed perpetrators accused of the gang rape of a female student in 2012.
Erik Wemple, Opinion Blogger for the Washington Post, told Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that Rolling Stone, "would never live it down," if details of the story proved to be incorrect.
Wemple explained the victim's account of the details of her assault is the only source for the focus of the story.
"They have alleged this horrific, terrible, gang rape that happened in September 2012 on the campus of the University of Virginia...and they, basically, tell the entire story from the perspective of the victim, and it appears that they either didn't try or didn't try hard enough to get the accused into the story or get comment from them. There are some other people contacted, but they have limited knowledge of what happened there."
He believes the limited information that Erderly had required her to make an attempt to talk to someone involved in that attack on the victim.
"If you have a complaint, if you have some other form of documentation to allege a rape has occurred, I think, in those cases, not being able to get in touch with the accused is, at least, more understandable. But here, there isn't much other than spoken word. There's no complaint that's been filed as far as I know. This is completely oral testimony, and so I think if you have that situation, it triggers a, sort of, effort to make an all-out effort to find other people, including the accused. If those people say, 'go away,' then perhaps you run the story and you put that in there, and it helps readers understand what may be going on."
Ultimately, Wemple believes Rolling Stone should've held the story until more could be done to verify its authenticity.
"Why not wait? The reporter clearly has a rapport with this woman. She is not going to lose this story to another outlet...She's clearly listened to this person, she has a rapport, and now she's going to wait until the woman, under my plan that is, she'd wait until the woman felt comfortable with it so she would, obviously, kind of, be walking through this whole thing with her."
Erderly declined to be interviewed, but Rolling Stone has printed a retraction due to discrepancies in the victim's account.
Check Out These Other Stories:
