In the November of 2014, Rolling Stone magazine published a story involving an alleged rape victim, who was brutally raped at the University of Virginia in her freshman year of college by a fraternity. Journalist, Sabrina Erdely, respected the victim’s privacy by only identifying the victim as Jackie (her first name) throughout the story’s entirety. Jackie alleged to Erdely that she was gang-rapped by a group of fraternity men from the Phi Kappa Psi organization. Jackie did not report the incident to police or the school, but instead two years later to a student support group for sexual assault survivors and later on to Erdely as well. Although Erdely did the ethically right thing in protecting the victim’s privacy, she failed to do so when it came to the most valuable and crucial parts to a journalist’s career in covering a solid story: Fact checking and Fair reporting
Analysis:
In the piece, “A Rape on Campus”, it became highly publicized because of the inconsistencies within Jackie’s allegations of what had happened the night of and the alleged lifeguard that she believes led to her attack. According to Colombia Journalism Review, Charlottesville police took Jackie’s recall of the incident under investigation and in March said they “exhausted all investigative leads” and “There is no substantive basis to support the account alleged in the Rolling Stone article.” Their has also been a statement made by the Fraternity that the date of the alleged night wasn’t a not a night that the organization had a party. Although, it’s possible that Jackie could have forgotten the date or had the dates mixed up, but in the midst of all the controversy, loopholes, and unanswered questions leads the story to be viewed as very questionable.
Erdely stated in the piece that Jackie refused to identify the lifeguard and had asked her again later on, but for his last name instead. And, in which Jackie responded she couldn’t spell his last name. What comes into question is why would Erdely’s editors allow her to continue with this story without knowing the lifeguard’s name or existence. Also why would Erdely not choose to dive in a bit deeper into this subject since she stated in the story that she too had questioned why Jackie could not know the man’s name, if she expressed her fear of him so deeply. A good reporter would try to get more in depth answers, especially if their questions are unmet with factual answers because if they have a hard time believing what is being given to them, what makes the journalist think that the reader will believe this information without the proper evidence too. Fact checking and getting the truth is what makes the trust between the reader and reporter evident and not only was Erdley at fault, but as well as her editors for approving such a misconduct to the ethics and integrity of journalism.
The biggest mistake Erdely made was not interviewing the alleged rapists and assuming that they would not speak to her. She should have tried because it will show to reader that she had tried or was able to talk to the accused. And, who knows the outcomes that could have occurred. A possibility in confirmation or story of their say or side to the allegations and situation. According to Lynch on what he refers to as Peace Journalism, Journalists have to give voice to the views of all rival parties, from all levels and expose lies, cover-up attempts and culprits on all sides, and reveals excesses committed by, and suffering inflicted on, peoples of all parties (p.3). Ultimately, her story became bias because she led the oversight to accommodate Jackie takeover. As a result, this led to failure on her part since journalists are held accountable to obtain fair reporting at all times.
In conclusion, I learned to never lose sight of your job and to remain loyal to journalism’s core values because some cases can be easily avoidable like the Rolling Stone UVA story. Another reason to do your job correctly is for the simple fact that this will forever be tied to Erdely and her future work will be under strict scrutiny since many people openly criticized her judgment and creditability as a journalist. It’s important to discuss these issues because there are young journalists who come into the work field everyday and awareness is much needed when these news stories breakout because sometimes the topics that you are covering or assigned to can put you in compromising situations and these simple mistakes can create a huge backlash in your creditability and harm your future.
References:
Lynch, J., & McGoldrick, A. (2005). Peace journalism. Stroud: Hawthorn Press.
Coronel, Sheila, Steve Coll, and Derek Kravitz. “Rolling Stone’s Investigation: ‘A Failure That Was Avoidable'” (n.d.): n. pag. 5 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.