After release of scathing report, Rolling Stone retracts article on rape at UVA

University of Virginia campus
(Image credit: Jay Paul/Getty Images)

On Sunday, Rolling Stone retracted an article it published in November about a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity.

The magazine also released a report it commissioned from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism that showed the writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, and editors failed to verify details and made countless other errors, The New York Times reports. The piece, "A Rape on Campus," was about a young woman identified as "Jackie," who told Erdely that in September 2012, she was raped by seven men in a dark room at a frat party. The Columbia report found that the magazine failed in "basic, even routine journalistic practice," with Erdely not providing the fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, with enough information for them to respond to Jackie's accusations. Erdely also quoted Jackie's recollections of conversations with friends, but did not reach out to speak with them independently.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.