Rape report unravels: frat vindication.

• Author: Soave, Robby
• Position: Rolling Stone report of gang rape at University of Virginia - Citings - Brief article

ROLLING STONE was forced to retract an article about the gang rape of a University of Virginia (UVA) student after other journalists--and the Charlottesville police--determined that key assertions in the piece were false. The horrific attack as described by the alleged victim, "Jackie," almost certainly never happened.

The original story was the culmination of reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely's months-long investigation into UVA's sexual assault response practices. Erdely wanted an illustrative example to kick off her piece; she chose Jackie's tale of rape because its gruesome details made it a surefire attention grabber. Jackie claimed that a date, "Drew," brought her to a party at UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in September 2012, lured her to an upstairs room, and held her down while seven men took turns raping her. Hours later, she said, she fled the house in a battered and bloodied state, but three friends stopped her from going to the police out of concern for their social...