The real lesson of the Rolling Stone rape article fiasco

You can't prove a negative. And you shouldn't be put in a position where you have to.

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at UVA.
(Image credit: (Illustration by Lauren Hansen | Image courtesy Jay Paul/Getty Images))

The Charlottesville Police Department reminded everyone on Monday why we have a justice system that requires accusers to make criminal cases beyond a reasonable doubt. And in doing so, the Charlottesville PD not only indicted one reporter's folly in publishing unproven allegations, but also skewered America's moral panic about college campuses, and the evasion of due process for the sake of political expediency.

The embarrassment of Rolling Stone's epic journalistic failure re-emerged on Monday in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia. Last year, the magazine published a 9,000-word indictment against UVA, saying the college had a "culture of hidden sexual violence" that protected rapists while leaving victims helpless. The article, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, told the story of "Jackie," a student who claimed to have endured a brutal gang rape at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity during a party, only to have her friends discourage her from reporting it so that they could maintain their own social contacts, and UVA ignore the crime to avoid damage to the school's reputation.

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Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.