Steve Sailer writes: “There’s a long pattern of Ms. Rubin Erdely’s work, going back to her early friendship with Stephen Glass, of Rubin Erdely being driven by political correct animus to publish extremely doubtful and tendentious versions of events, like the transgender hooker whose knife was attacked by the neo-Nazi’s chest (according to her Rolling Stone article).”
* So, Mr. Dana, who was responsible editor on the story, decides that the people responsible “did not deserve to lose their jobs”. Sort of like a defendant telling the judge “Well, your honor, I don’t deserve to go to prison because this crime wasn’t a result of the pattern of my behavior.” Poppycock! Ms. Erdely, Mr. Dana and Mr. Woods all must be fired and banished from journalism. No, this is not about freedom of the press, it is all about professional responsibility, something they all lack.
* Rolling Stone either doesn’t desire to be taken seriously or believes the short attention span of its readership will allow this event to blow over with no apparent ramifications for the reporter or editors. This story’s sensational lies damaged the young men accused, UVA and true victims of sexual assault on college campuses. It bolstered the confidence of the conservatives who incorrectly maintain that undrereported sexual assault on campus is a fiction.
How hard would it have been for Mr. Wenner to say that Ms. Erdely would never work for RS again? Who would believe her writing, the veracity of her reporting? She went looking for a particular story with an agenda, found a co-ed who provided the paint to her canvas. She’s a good fiction writer, time to make it a career.
* The error was that the author of the article and the magazine itself were not looking to report on something timely; they knew what story they wanted to tell, and needed a “good” example of it; all the real ones they heard weren’t stereotypically good enough, so when the story started to be of a gang-rape of an African-American woman at what northern liberals consider an elite good ol’ boy (by their lights) school in what they think is the evil South, they were ready to print any exaggeration they were told, no matter what the truth might be.
As far as I’m concerned, they were told a story that appealed to their stereotypical prejudices and acted like it was a college version of “Deliverance”.
Well I think it’s great that, maybe the truth didn’t come out (yet), but the fact that it was all lies finally became known. It became obvious to me when I finally read the Rolling Stone article after two days of reading ABOUT it; it read like a melodrama with a lot of hand waving and nothing that sounded at all realistic, more like a poorly written horror short story. And I guess it was!
* What’s more disturbing than anything else in this sordid tale is that highly paid, well-educated editorial staff at Rolling Stone ever could believe something like this were true. This is clear indication that our media is utterly out of touch with the country and the people in it. Like the “satanic ritual abuse” fantasy 30 years ago, this is media conforming to worldview that assumes the worst because it hates it subjects – everyday Americans – so profoundly.
* This apology is a disingenuous lie. They wee “too deferential to their rape victim?” Rape is a crime. it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Nothing, repeat, nothing, was proved, except that she is a liar. Their was no crime, no rape, no victim. The Rolling Stone continues to perpetuate this lie through its continuesd unethical reporting of pretending their was a crime Rolling Stone needs to stop lying and apologize to the fraternity and each of its members.
* I assume that I will not be the only one who notes that Ms. Erdely did not even bother to apologize to those who were unjustly accused collectively or individually. Any decent person would have put them first on the apology list, but they are obviously invisible to the blind prejudice of the politically correct social jihadists.
* Sabrina Erdely apologized to “Rolling Stone readers, her colleagues, and ‘any victims of sexual assault who may feel fearful as a result of [her] article,'” and goes on to describe the whole affair as a “brutal experience.” Wow. No apologies to or even mention of the innocent men of Phi Kappa Psi, whose reputations Ms. Erdely was willing to wantonly destroy, whose physical safety and academic standing were put in jeopardy, whose collective psychological health was disregarded in the name of a self-righteous and premeditated witch hunt. Tell me Ms. Erdely, if it was a brutal experience for you, do you believe they found it to be a walk in the park?
The absolute worst thing about this whole disgusting affair is that neither Erdely nor Will Dana will be fired for what I believe to be a case of criminal negligence. I can only hope that the falsely accused get the best trial attorneys in the country and sue Rolling Stone into the ground. It has already revealed itself to be a tabloid shadow of its former self that does not deserve the privilege of the printed word. As for the rest of us, I hope that we have learned from this. Learned that just because something is said does not mean it is true, learned that hearsay is nothing without evidence, and above all due process must be respected. Our very status as a nation of laws depends on it.
* Public professional mortification is certainly required for all the people at Rolling Stone who participated in this travesty.
Is there nothing more they deserve: two weeks unpaid suspension, reassignment to another position, formal censure?
Another indication about how organizations no longer accept responsibility beyond the “so sorry to anyone who was offended.”
Ms. Erdely “…..was willing to go too far in her effort to try and protect a victim of apparently a horrible crime. She dropped her journalistic training, scruples and rules and convinced Sean to do the same. There is this series of falling dominoes.”
I recognize that magazine reporting is not brain surgery but she did commit the equivalent of a doctor who “dropped all his medical training, scruples and rules and convinced an OR full of nurses and doctors to do the same.”
Might she bear some responsibility that warrants more than public shame?
* The gist of their self-defense appears to be “We are good-hearted, compassionate people who had the best of intentions, so please hold us to a lower standard when it comes to the consequences of our actions.”
