Rolling Stone urges court to throw out lawsuit by three men falsely accused of rape.

The 'Jackie' story. You probably haven't heard it, it was all over the US for weeks and weeks. Rolling Stone magazined commissioned a reporter to investigate 'rape on campus'; the reporter (a woman) wanted to find the most harrowing case, and she eventually came across a woman called 'Jackie' (her real name was omitted from the record).

Jackie gave a very detailed account of a gang rape she had suffered as part of an initiation ritual at a fraternity. Rolling Stone took hold of the story and stuck it on the front page. The boys were suspended (in fact, ALL fraternities were suspended), Jackie was mollycoddled, the fraternity's name, and all associated with it, were dragged through the mud by the entire American MSM - professors lined-up to stick a boot in to 'sick' fraternity culture.

The fraternity house was vandalised (cinder blocks and empty bottles were thrown through the windows), and the Associate Dean of the University received death threats. All of the boys had to abandon their house, and seek alternate accommodation. Their names were ruined.

The author didn't reach out to the accused for their side of the story, it just went straight to the front page. In anticipation of a ferocious with hunt, none of the sources were verified - the 'fact checker' didn't even verify the story with 'Jackie's friends.' Upon further investigation, numerous inaccuracies emerged - it turns out there wasn't even a party on the night in question.

Needless to say, she made the whole thing up. All of it. Rolling Stone retracted the story, and is now urging the court to throw out the lawsuit.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/rolling-stone-urges-court-to-reject-university-of-virginia-graduates-lawsuit-1450965373

#WomenAreOppressed

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

TheCitizenAct

OP

2

This was the author's pathetic, meek apology: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/06/business/media/statement-from-writer-of-rolling-stone-rape-article-sabrina-erdely.html?_r=0

Note the absence of any apology to the accused, or the fraternity. These boys lives have been turned upside down and still, the dominant them of the apology is non-existent victims of rape or sexual assault. Despicable.

Reply 2

abruiseonthesky

11

This is exactly why people accused of serious crimes should be anonymous in the press and in the public eye until/if convicted.

However, I'd also like to point out that under 0.5% of rape accusations are proven to be false.

Reply 3

TheCitizenAct

OP

2

Original post by abruiseonthesky

This is exactly why people accused of serious crimes should be anonymous in the press and in the public eye until/if convicted.

However, I'd also like to point out that under 0.5% of rape accusations are proven to be false.

Upwards of 8% in the US, but such a thing is impossible to measure, largely owing to widely disparate definitions of 'falseness.'

It's much like reporting on rape. While many deem Sweden to be 'the rape capital of Europe', it's anything but. They just report differently. Whereby one perpetrator raping a woman or man multiple times would be classified as one instance of rape in certain countries, in Sweden each instance of rape is counted as an individual instance (which is right, in my view).

Reply 4

abruiseonthesky

11

Original post by TheCitizenAct

Upwards of 8% in the US, but such a thing is impossible to measure, largely owing to widely disparate definitions of 'falseness.'

It's much like reporting on rape. While many deem Sweden to be 'the rape capital of Europe', it's anything but. They just report differently. Whereby one perpetrator raping a woman or man multiple times would be classified as one instance of rape in certain countries, in Sweden each instance of rape is counted as an individual instance (which is right, in my view).

In the UK it's under 0.5% (or was last time I saw stats, anyway).
I'll agree with disparate definitions of falseness, though. Imo, if there was no attack at all, it's a false accusation. If there was an attack but it wasn't technically rape, it's just inaccurate, because there's still a sexual crime involved if that makes sense?

Reply 5

TheCitizenAct

OP

2

Original post by abruiseonthesky

In the UK it's under 0.5% (or was last time I saw stats, anyway).
I'll agree with disparate definitions of falseness, though. Imo, if there was no attack at all, it's a false accusation. If there was an attack but it wasn't technically rape, it's just inaccurate, because there's still a sexual crime involved if that makes sense?

Yep. However, if there isn't enough evidence to push for a conviction, it doesn't mean it wasn't false either.

For all we like to talk about the number of cases which go unreported, we often fail to discuss the number of false accusation which go unreported, which, likewise, have far-reaching implications for the psychological well-being of the accused (mud sticks, ask Nigel Evans MP).

Reply 6

abruiseonthesky

11

Original post by TheCitizenAct

Yep. However, if there isn't enough evidence to push for a conviction, it doesn't mean it wasn't false either.

For all we like to talk about the number of cases which go unreported, we often fail to discuss the number of false accusation which go unreported, which, likewise, have far-reaching implications for the psychological well-being of the accused (mud sticks, ask Nigel Evans MP).

Indeed.

That problem would be solved by my earlier suggestion.

Reply 7

Vaginal_Rights

4

Original post by abruiseonthesky

This is exactly why people accused of serious crimes should be anonymous in the press and in the public eye until/if convicted.

However, I'd also like to point out that under 0.5% of rape accusations are proven to be false.

Don't know where you pulled that stat from, it's actually 2 to 10 per cent.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416536/how-common-are-false-rape-charges-really-jason-richwine

Reply 8

caravaggio2

17

Where did you get those stats from Abruise?

Reply 9

abruiseonthesky

11

Original post by Vaginal_Rights

Don't know where you pulled that stat from, it's actually 2 to 10 per cent.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416536/how-common-are-false-rape-charges-really-jason-richwine

Depends where you look. This says 0.6%, then says the MoJ's estimate was 8-11%. Annoyingly, I can't find the original Guardian article (it's actually really annoying me now :tongue: