<p>I think President Sullivan’s address to the students today was excellent. </p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sabrina-rubin-erdely-woman-behind-rolling-stones-explosive-u-va-alleged-rape-story/2014/11/28/89f322c2-7731-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/sabrina-rubin-erdely-woman-behind-rolling-stones-explosive-u-va-alleged-rape-story/2014/11/28/89f322c2-7731-11e4-bd1b-03009bd3e984_story.html</a></p>
<p>Who cares if she worked as a lifeguard? Corroborating that takes half an hour at most and doesn’t matter a bit. What about the important stuff? She says Jackie won’t identify anyone so she can’t corroborate anything. This is too big now not to get to the bottom of it so I hope everyone is ready for that.</p>
<p>She says Jackie won’t publicly ID them, she did ID them to her, she tried to contact them for the story, as the article says.</p>
<p>"Some elements of the story, however, are apparently too delicate for Erdely to talk about now. She won’t say, for example, whether she knows the names of Jackie’s alleged attackers or whether in her reporting she approached “Drew,” the alleged ringleader, for comment. She is bound to silence about those details, she said, by an agreement with Jackie, who “is very fearful of these men, in particular Drew. . . . She now considers herself an empty shell. So when it comes down to identifying them, she has a very hard time with that.”</p>
<p>This is what I read, which doesn’t sound like what you wrote to me. But, I am picky. I realize that.</p>
<p>^ you’re right, it was in a different article that she said she attempted to contact them. The Slate one.</p>
<p>It is in one of the more critical articles that her editor is interviewed and talks about the fact-checking done by RS, which was to RS’ satisfaction. </p>
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<p><a href=“Sabrina Rubin Erdely's UVA Gang Rape Reporting Raises Questions | The New Republic”>http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120450/sabrina-rubin-erdelys-uva-gang-rape-reporting-raises-questions</a></p>
<p>I can understand that a rape could occur inside a fraternity. However, I’m having a hard time believing that 7 UVa students could have participated in that act. </p>
<p>I can understand that one guy could be responsible for 7 rapes, which is why we need to do everything possible to have criminal prosecutions.</p>
<p>@charliesch Why? Because they’re UVA students or because gang rapes don’t happen or…?</p>
<p>What I find VERY odd is that 7 fraternity guys allegedly participated in this act and NONE of them bragged about it to other friends? How likely is that? No question about it that there is a sexual assault problem at UVa, but I’ll bet a few bucks that we’re going to find out that this story was at least somewhat fabricated.</p>
<p>A fact-checker talking to an anonymous person on the phone and receiving texts from other anonymous people is not checking facts. Anonymous people saying stuff is not fact and can’t be determined credible or not in any possible real way. All that means is somebody said something and somebody else believed it. I don’t get why so many people don’t get this. And, to be clear here I’m not saying it’s false but it’s not sound journalism. Still, with all the attention this is getting the actual facts are bound to be unearthed eventually. </p>
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<p>How do you know they didn’t? Apparently a lot of people knew about it but did nothing, which is part of the story, no?</p>
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<p>I missed the article that explained in detail what the fact checker did and who s/he spoke to. Can you share it with us please?</p>
<p>The thing that is confusing to me then, if people associated with One Less knew about this, is why no one from this group was in an uproar about it until the RS article came out. Maybe this group did try to get something done about it but I don’t recall hearing about it. Certainly, an alleged rape by 7 individuals at a fraternity house poses a broader public safety issue , beyond anything that may have happened to Jackie.</p>
<p>And the story continues…</p>
<p><a href=“Column: Rolling Stone rape story sends shock waves -- and stretches credulity”>http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-goldberg-uva-rape-rolling-stone-20141202-column.html</a></p>
<p>My daughter was a student at UVa from 2010-2014, was a member of a sorority and went to fraternity parties on a regular basis (although she never stepped foot in the fraternity in question…her sorority did not hang out with those guys for no apparent reason). She told me that when she read the RS article while at work, she burst into tears. She believes Jackie’s story because “who or why would anyone make up something like that?” She was devastated that this horrific event happened at her university. That said, she also told me that during her four years at UVa, she never encountered anyone who told her she had been raped and didn’t hear of anyone she knew getting raped. She knows of plenty girls who regretted their actions “in the morning,” but no one who had been forced into anything. She knows guys from different fraternities, more than a few from privileged backgrounds, and she said that rape is definitely not part of their culture. Not that she doubts that rape takes place at UVa (and in all colleges) and believes that UVa needs to take the necessary steps to address the problem, but she was not personally affected by it during her four years there.</p>
<p>It looks like some people have moved from the total shock phase, to the anger phase, to the skepticism phase.</p>
<p>I missed the article that explained in detail what the fact checker did and who s/he spoke to. Can you share it with us please? </p>
<p>My comment was on the quote from the editor in post 245. And, yes, skepticism abounds. Here’s a pretty good summary. Basically, journalists are noticing the extremely bad journalism in a star-making story and raising questions. None of this is about rape, it’s about the difference between a reporter and a storyteller. They both have their place…</p>
<p><a href=“More Questions about Rolling Stone and UVA - Minding The Campus”>http://www.mindingthecampus.com/2014/12/more-questions-about-rolling-stone-and-uva/</a></p>
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This is not a good reason to believe something is true. I’m not implying the story is false or true, but believing it to be true simply because you can’t imagine why someone would make it up is a risky way to approach things. </p>
<p>I find it more interesting that the article also made it sound as if every woman at UVA knew several people who had been sexually assaulted in their time there, and yet your daughter said “during her four years at UVa, she never encountered anyone who told her she had been raped and didn’t hear of anyone she knew getting raped” and she was in the thick of the Greek system as well. I very much hope the investigation into this incident yields real answers.</p>
<p>@curiousmother sorry, upon re-reading my second paragraph above it sounds like I’m questioning your daughter’s experience, when I meant just the opposite. My S has quite an extended group of female friends on grounds and neither they nor anyone they know of has been sexually assaulted at UVA, which is in line with your daughter’s experience. So it certainly does not appear to be a culture, as presented in the article, where everyone knows multiple people who have been assaulted. Of course they are all upset that this incident may have happened, but most want to be cautious until all the facts come out. </p>
<p>“It looks like some people have moved from the total shock phase, to the anger phase, to the skepticism phase.”</p>
<p>I’m in that category. Not skeptical that there is a problem with sexual assault at UVa. Just very skeptical about the facts surrounding Jackie’s story. </p>