Reporters must remain vigilant

On Nov. 19, 2014, Rolling Stone published “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA,” a 9,000 word article detailing the horrific gang rape of a University of Virginia freshman at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house

The Washington Post started raising questions about the article, curious as to why the author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, failed to contact and interview the alleged attackers. It was discovered that Haven Monahan, the alleged attacker, was not a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, nor was there ever any record of a student by that name enrolled at UVA.

The night of the alleged attack, there were three friends that answered Jackie, the (alleged) victim’s cry for help. They were Alex Stock, Kathryn Hendley, and Ryan Duffin. The three friends were identified only by pseudonyms in the original Rolling Stone article. The original Rolling Stone article stated that Duffin declined to comment, but he later came forward to The Washington Post and said that he was never contacted by Erderly.

As The Washington Post continued its investigation into the facts stated in the original story, more and more discrepancies began to arise. Rolling Stone not only retracted its story, but also published a lengthy statement saying that in light of the new information, they misplaced their trust in Jackie.

This statement caused even more of an uproar because people were outraged that Rolling Stone was blaming its lack of fact-checking on Jackie.

The magazine then released a second statement that said, “These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie. We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.”

Erderly has been doing work as an investigative journalist for over 20 years, and still made a mistake that tarnished not only her reputation as a credible writer, but also the reputation of investigative journalists everywhere. However, the blame for this blatant mistake does not rest solely on her shoulders. The published story passed over the desks of colleagues and editors before it went to press, but nobody raised any questions about the validity of the facts.

And while it is the responsibility of reporters to collect data and double check their own facts, it is also the job of copy editors and fellow journalists to raise questions about the credibility of facts.

As many of you readers know, there have been times when there were false facts published in The Eagle, and we take full responsibility for those.

Rolling Stone has brought attention to something that needs to be addressed by allowing such a libelous and inaccurate story to be published. There is no such thing as a perfect person, a perfect reporter, or a perfect editor.

We all make mistakes. However, our first goal is always to avoid publishing erroneous material. The fact that a nationally recognized magazine could have a faux pas this immense proves that reporters need to stay vigilant.

That is the goal of the editorial staff at The Eagle. To report facts that we can prove to be true and stay vigilant while we do so.