All it would have taken was to fact-check a date. Just one date. The date of the night the alleged victim was brutally gang raped that was cited in the story.
The editor’s note now at the front of the sensational story A Rape on Campus states “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.”
I could be more empathetic to this sentiment if they had just checked to see if the date the party supposedly took place was factually correct. It’s called fact checking and it used to exist in professional journalism – where were the Rolling Stone editors and fact checkers?
In an age when there is so much misinformation floating around on the web, an article on a very sensitive subject in hard print in a reputable magazine should be trusted. The public lament that this is a blow to sexual assault victims and woman in general is absolutely and unequivocally correct. The stereotypical crazy girl that may have made the whole thing up just got validated and shared on thousands of Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. As a woman that has quickened my step at night and looked over my shoulder on many occasion throughout my life, the now obvious falseness of this story and the carelessness of Rolling Stone to perpetuate this damning archetype is a betrayal in the utmost degree.
And it’s a blow to the righteous. At a time when our country is divided and the divisions are screaming at each other about who has the truth on their side, it could be a setback to those who are finally getting their voices - after decades of silencing – heard.
We are at a moment in time in this country that feels on the brink of breaking for essential change as thousands are now flooding the streets for justice for the poor, black and disenfranchised. The last straw came after justice was not served for a crime that took place all completely on video. The truth, no matter how advocates for the Staten Island police try to obfuscate, is clear.
But Michael Brown’s family didn’t have that absolute account. We have to piece to together what happened with forensic evidence and eye witness testimony. And with the web full of amateur websites that can relay the story that appeals most to their readers, truth is – theoretically at least – elusive. So many people argue on the web now don’t stop with their own words – they post links to an articles that back up their opinion. And so many of those links take you to well-written articles that have the appearance, at face value, of truth, but upon further scrutiny, just don’t hold up.
Professional journalism is supposed to be the knife that cuts through the fog. Long standing upright print publications are supposed to be clear cutters of the wood rot created by half-truths and fallacy. I am someone that posts many articles on my FB account but I try to stick to mainstream, long standing publications. They are supposed to be the beacon for those of us where facts matter.
Now we have one more setback where the online trolls can sneer at those publications in which they don’t want to give any credit.
If I was ruler of the universe, I would demand a do-over. Rolling Stone would make it up to us by doing a real investigative piece on rape and sexual assault on campuses; send an actual seasoned journalist more concerned with truth and facts, than keeping a riveting anecdote intact, to correct the egregiously unprofessional tabloid falseness of A Rape on Campus. One that the haters can’t laugh at and point in their “I told you so” moment, but will stand as bedrock to a real problem experienced by women every day.
Maybe then Rolling Stone can stand on a righteous foundation of fighting for the disenfranchised again which is the main reason I looked past all those “Best Of” lists with only token scatterings of any women and Hot List tits year after year.
It may just a little fantasy, but it feels like the least they should do.
Sun Dec 07, 2014 at 8:27 AM PT: Update: Thank you for the community spotlight and recommendations I received on this diary. As you could probably tell, I was upset when I wrote this and want to clarify one thing based on some comments. My target was bad professionalism in journalism, not rape or sexual assault survivors. My point is that bad reporting sets back important topics like this one for a long time. The woman at the center of The Rolling Stone magazine may very well have been brutally gang raped and not "the crazy girl" but the fact that RS got the basic facts wrong puts the whole critical topic in jeopardy by perpetuating the go-to stereotype of the crazy girl that many people use to discount rape victims' accounts. Not fact checking and having something blow back like this damages good causes especially in today's day where it's hard enough to find the truth in a sea of misinformation on the web. It's more important than ever to have reputable magazines like The Rolling Stone get it right, all the time. Thanks for some great comments and the good discussion.