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UVA Rape Story Collapses; Duke Lacrosse Redux
Topic Started: Dec 5 2014, 01:45 PM (60,471 Views)
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/250592346/Rolling-Stone-UVA-E-mails

http://www.scribd.com/doc/250592346/Rolling-Stone-UVA-E-mails
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/12/19/u-va-rolling-stone-e-mails-highlight-universitys-attempt-to-correct-magazine/

U-Va.-Rolling Stone e-mails highlight university’s attempt to correct magazine
By Erik Wemple December 19 at 6:32 PM


Newly released emails show University of Virginia officials telling a Rolling Stone journalist that a sexual assault incident she was reporting on was “objectively false.” The pushback was part of a largely collegial set of interactions in the months leading up to publication of the magazine’s highly flawed Nov. 19 story “A Rape on Campus.” The story, which led with an alleged September 2012 gang rape of a freshman named Jackie at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, prompted a public uproar and a definitive university response that shut down fraternity activities, but the tale in recent weeks has come unraveled on account of inconsistencies in the gang-rape scenario presented by the magazine.

More than 100 pages of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal a pretty standard back-and-forth between an investigative reporter and an institution under scrutiny. The documentary trail begins in early September, as Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely contacts U-Va.’s Nicole Eramo, head of the sexual misconduct board, in an effort to secure an interview regarding the university’s handling of sexual assault complaints. In the resulting flurry of communications, Eramo pulls in the university’s public relations team. That pretty much squelches things, as Erdely reported in her story:

And yet the UVA public-relations team seemed unenthused about this article, canceling my interview with the head of UVA’s Sexual Misconduct Board, and forbidding other administrators from cooperating; even students seemed infected by their anxiety about how members of the administration might appear. And when President Sullivan was at last made available for an interview, her most frequently invoked answer to my specific questions about sexual-assault handling at UVA – while two other UVA staffers sat in on the recorded call – was “I don’t know.”

The documents show that Rolling Stone fact-checker Elisabeth Garber-Paul jumps into the correspondence on Nov. 7, asking the U-Va. people a bunch of very detailed and excellent questions about procedures for handling sexual assault complaints — reporting that assumes a prominent spot in the story. Those questions concerned whether Eramo was the primary intake person for complaints, whether other administrators receive complaints and whether complaints get included in university reports, among other queries.

Another key revelation is that Garber-Paul pushed U-Va. on the most chilling statistic in this whole mess: that there have been “183 expulsions for honor code violations since 1998, and zero expulsions for sexual assault.” The response from university spokesman Anthony P. de Bruyn: “To my knowledge, these numbers are accurate.”

Erdely chafed at the restrictions that the press people were looking to impose on her interview with President Teresa Sullivan. In a Sept. 16 missive, she wrote to her handlers: “As for the presence of other people in the interview: If that’s the only way I’ll be allowed to talk to President Sullivan, then so be it. But I imagine a university president is fully capable of getting through a phone conversation, without help. My article will obviously mention the way UVA has sought to restrict and pad my access to its administrators.”

There are limits to an e-mail FOIA request: Erdely conducted some business with U-Va. officials over the phone, and the written correspondence reflects some of this. But most intriguing is an e-mail from de Bruyn to Garber-Paul, which reads as follows, in part:

Good morning, Liz-

One additional note. As I mentioned to you, we have expressed our concern to Sabrina regarding what we believe to be her mischaracterization of facts about a case that occurred in Spring 2014. I recall I mentioned this to you on the phone.

It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension. This is in fact objectively false.

As I told Sabrina at the time, federal privacy laws prohibit us from disclosing details of any sexual assault report…

Now, that e-mail is dated Nov. 13. A month earlier, on Oct. 9, de Bruyn included this note in an e-mail to Erdely: “One additional matter. As we said during our phone interview, federal privacy laws prohibit us from disclosing details of any sexual assault report, investigation, or hearing. That said, your characterization of the facts of the spring 2014 case you referenced in our interview is incorrect.”

Meaning: The university, to the extent it could, was attempting to steer Erdely away from her reporting.

Though it’s difficult to say just what incident is under discussion here, Erdely’s piece does contain a significant discussion of an incident that resembles the one referenced in the e-mails. Here it is:

Rolling Stone has discovered that this past spring a UVA first-year student, whom we’ll call Stacy, filed a report stating that while vomiting up too much whiskey into a male friend’s toilet one night, he groped her, plunged his hands down her sweatpants and then, after carrying her semi-conscious to his bed, digitally penetrated her. When the Charlottesville DA’s office declined to file charges, she says, Stacy asked for a hearing with the Sexual Misconduct Board, and was surprised when UVA authority figures tried to talk her out of it. “My counselors, members of the Dean of Students office, everyone said the trial process would be way too hard on me,” says Stacy. “They were like, ‘You need to focus on your healing.’ ” Stacy insisted upon moving forward anyway, even when the wealthy family of the accused kicked up a fuss. “They threatened to sue deans individually, they threatened to sue me,” she recalls. But Stacy remained stalwart, because she had additional motivation: She’d been shaken to discover two other women with stories of assault by the same man. “One was days after mine, at a rush function at his frat house,” says Stacy. “So I was like, ‘I have to do something before someone else is hurt.’ ” Her determination redoubled after the Dean of Students office informed her that multiple assaults by a student would be grounds for his expulsion – a mantra that Eramo repeated at a Take Back the Night event in April.

We’ve reached out to U-Va. for further information on this matter.

As for the narrative thread of “A Rape on Campus” — Jackie’s case, that is — it’s hard to find in this trove of correspondence: After scouring the documents, the Erik Wemple Blog hasn’t yet found any mention. We’ll keep looking.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/rolling-stone-never-asked-u-va-about-gang-rape-allegations-according-to-newly-released-e-mail-exchanges/2014/12/19/1b9cc248-87cf-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html

Rolling Stone never asked U-Va. about gang rape allegations, according to newly released e-mail exchanges

By Paul Farhi December 19 at 7:21 PM

A Rolling Stone reporter and a fact checker for the magazine never sought a reaction from officials at the University of Virginia about an alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity in 2012, according to an extensive exchange of e-mails between the journalists and the university.

The e-mails, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, gives no indication that writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely told the university that she was pursuing a story about Jackie, a U-Va. freshman who said she was raped by seven other students at a Phi Kappa Psi party two years ago.

The e-mails — covering all exchanges between university officials and the magazine for the past six months — instead paint a picture of a more general inquiry. Erdely repeatedly asks for information about the school’s policy regarding sexual assault complaints and seeks interviews with university officials, including president Teresa A. Sullivan.




At no point in the 104 pages of e-mails does she or Rolling Stone assistant editor Elizabeth Garber-Paul, who fact checked Erdely’s Nov. 19 story, seek comment on Jackie’s explosive allegations of a gang assault.

Rolling Stone spokeswoman Melissa Bruno said late Friday that Erdely did ask Sullivan about the alleged rape in an interview prior to publication. Bruno said in an e-mail that Sullivan “responded that she could say little about them, other than they had ‘a fraternity under investigation,’ and had spoken to its national organization. That answer is reflected in the article.

Erdely and Rolling Stone’s reporting of the U-Va. story, which appeared on Nov. 19, has already been fraught with basic reporting lapses. The magazine has acknowledged that it did not speak to, or even locate, any of the men accused by Jackie.

Subsequent reporting has also showed that the magazine never contacted three friends of Jackie, who Rolling Stone said discouraged Jackie from seeking medical attention or a police investigation after the alleged incident. The friends, all U-Va. students, have disputed Rolling Stone’s account of what they told Jackie.

Separately, Ben Warthen, a lawyer who has represented Phi Kappa Psi’s U-Va. chapter, said Friday that he spoke on the phone with Erdely while she was reporting the story. Warthen said that he asked her to submit questions about the fraternity to him in an e-mail. Warthen said that Erdely never responded or submitted any questions.

The e-mail exchanges between U-Va. officials and Rolling Stone primarily involve Erdely’s efforts to schedule interviews with officials, including president Teresa Sullivan, for a story described by Erdely only as about “sexual assault on campus.” At no point in the exchanges does either party refer to Jackie, the fraternity or a gang rape.

Indeed, at one point, university spokesman Anthony de Bruyun tells Erdely that “federal privacy laws prohibit us from disclosing any sexual assault report, investigation or hearing.” He goes on to state that Erdely’s characterization of an assault case at the university earlier this year was “incorrect.” The details of that case are not clear from the e-mails.

De Bruyun on Friday said: “The University remains focused on the well-being of all students, and especially any survivor of sexual assault. There is important work ahead regarding efforts to strengthen student safety. The University respectfully declines comment on the records released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.”

A Rolling Stone representative did not respond to a request for comment.

At another point before the story’s publication, Garber-Paul asks de Bruyun a series of questions, none of which specifically reference Jackie’s allegations:

“Is it accurate to say that the UVA administration believes that Rolling Stone publishing this story might discourage sexual assault victims from coming forward in the future?” she asked.

Replied de Bruyun: “A.We are concerned that any story be factually accurate and clearly state that students are encouraged by us to report sexual misconduct including sexual assault.

De Bruyun also tells Garber-Paul of his concerns about the reporting of the 2014 case: “As I mentioned to you, we have expressed our concern to Sabrina regarding what we believe to be a mischaracterization of the facts about a case that occurred in Spring 2014. . . . It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension. This is in fact objectively false.”

In her first public statement made immediately after the article’s publication, Sullivan, the U-Va. president, promised a full investigation of the alleged rape. But she also said the Rolling Stone story included “many details that were previously not disclosed to University officials.” She has not elaborated on that statement.

At another point in the exchanges, McGregor McCance, a university communications specialist, informs Erdely that Nicole Eramo, the dean in charge of U-Va.’s Sexual Misconduct Board, and Claire Kaplan of the UVA Women’s Center, would not be available for interviews.

Erdely nevertheless quoted Eramo second-hand in her story, using Jackie’s account of her conversation with Eramo. “Jackie got a different explanation when she’d eventually asked Dean Eramo the same question [about why the school allegedly did not publish all its data about assaults on campus]. She says Eramo answered wryly, “Because nobody wants to send their daughter to the rape school.”

Rolling Stone co-founder and editor Jann S. Wenner has said nothing publicly about the magazine’s U-Va. story. In an editor’s note posted to the article after questions about it mounted, managing editor Will Dana acknowledged “discrepancies” in the article.

The magazine has said it would undertake an “internal review” to determine how its reporter, editors, fact checkers and lawyers failed to spot the story’s flaws. A magazine representative, Melissa Bruno, said Friday that no determinations have yet been made.

Staff wr iter T. Rees Shapiro contributed to this story.
Paul Farhi is The Washington Post's media reporter.
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http://thefederalist.com/2014/12/19/5-shocking-facts-revealed-by-e-mails-between-uva-and-rolling-stone/


5 Shocking Facts Revealed By E-mails Between UVA And Rolling Stone
December 19, 2014 By Mollie Hemingway

The University of Virginia released 104 pages of correspondence related to Rolling Stone’s article about rape at the University of Virginia. Almost all of the correspondence is an attempt to hash out interview times or to clarify particulars related to the process of handling claims about sexual assault.

Even so, here are the five most surprising things revealed by the emails between Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina R. Erdely, fact checker Elisabeth Garber-Paul and staff at the University of Virginia:
1) No attempt to verify “rapist’s” existence

Elisabeth Garber-Paul reached out to U-Va. on Nov. 7 to set up an appointment to fact check the story. Her questions were limited to procedures regarding sexual assault complaints. Nowhere in the correspondence did Garber-Paul ask for any type of verification of the story about “Jackie” and her claim of horrific gang-rape by a particular fraternity.

Incidentally, Garber-Paul’s work history includes the abortion activist group RH Reality Check and an internship at the progressive magazine The Nation. About the latter she said “the best part was that it introduced me to fact checking, a little part of journalism I hardly knew about and soon grew to love.” She also said:

When I’d started at The Nation, I thought it was more about checking names, dates, basic things like that. But there they teach you to tear apart an article and put it back together, re-report pieces by writers you have read and respected for years.

Garber-Paul’s last tweet is a RT of a Jezebel article that lashed out at critics of the Rolling Stone story.

Screen Shot 2014-12-19 at 5.42.55 PM
2) UVA told Erdely her facts were “objectively false”

Even though Garber-Paul at no time asked about any of the anecdotes in Erdely’s reporting, the University of Virginia repeatedly told Erdely and Garber-Paul that the facts of one case she was talking about were mistaken. Anthony Paul de Bruyn wrote to Garber-Paul, “It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension. This is in fact objectively false.” (Emphasis mine.)

Screen Shot 2014-12-19 at 5.36.23 PM
3) Erdely had other stories to use

Erdely told Emily Renda that due to length constraints, she couldn’t divulge the “full contours” of her situation. She wrote to Renda, who has testified before a Senate committee about campus rape and her assault at the University of Virginia:

(FYI I talk about your own assault in the broadest of strokes. Sadly there was no room in the article for the full contours of your story, in all its detail, which frankly could be an article unto itself. Same can be said of basically every survivor I had the honor of interviewing.)

4) Rolling Stone claimed to want to portray the story fairly

Garber-Paul’s introductory note to the University of Virginia said, “Hello! I’m a fact checker at Rolling Stone, and I’m working on Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s piece about the University of Virginia. I was wondering, would it be possible for us to speak on the phone sometime early next week? I’d like to go through some facts, details, and characterizations and make sure that the university is being represented as accurately as possible.” (Emphasis mine.)

Screen Shot 2014-12-19 at 6.11.20 PM
5) UVA wanted Erdely to speak with President Teresa Sullivan

It appears that Erdely first contacted UVA officials on Sept. 5, which means that it took her more than two months to never confirm the existence of the central perpetrator in her story.

Much of the correspondence between Rolling Stone and UVA is focused on setting up an interview time. UVA wanted the communication to come from Sullivan while Erdely wanted to speak with a lower-level administrator. This upset her greatly.

Photo By My Eye Sees
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is a senior editor at The Federalist.
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Dec 19 2014, 06:03 PM
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2014/12/19/unbelievable-rolling-stone-writer-is-rereporting-her-botched-uva-story-n1934002

December 19, 2014
Unbelievable: Rolling Stone Writer Is Re-Reporting Her Botched UVA Story
Matt Vespa
12/19/2014 11:45:00 AM - Matt Vespa

Talk about sending the arsonist to put out the fire. Rolling Stone made it known that a re-reporting mission will be assembled to address the abysmal journalism in their disgraceful Nov. 19 story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia. Sabrina Rubin Erdely wrote the piece and came under fire for failing, amongst other things, to reach out to the alleged attackers for their account of the night’s events. Now, it seems Erdely is re-reporting what happened on the night of the alleged assault, a night where the fraternity allegedly at fault held no social gathering.

(snip)

I can only imagine what kind of Frankenstein monster-like article will come out of this re-reporting initiative on behalf of RS. Seriously RS, everyone else did the legwork for you; it’s over now.
abb: yes, from a story that you posted several days ago, it
seemed that RS was letting Erdely "re-report" the story --
it seems now that has been confirmed!

This is unbelievable!!!!
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Quote:
 
And yet the UVA public-relations team seemed unenthused about this article, canceling my interview with the head of UVA’s Sexual Misconduct Board, and forbidding other administrators from cooperating; even students seemed infected by their anxiety about how members of the administration might appear. And when President Sullivan was at last made available for an interview, her most frequently invoked answer to my specific questions about sexual-assault handling at UVA – while two other UVA staffers sat in on the recorded call – was “I don’t know.”


Were Duke faculty and admin prohibited from responding about the case? Was Brodhead "monitored" by other staff?

Quote:
 

Erdely chafed at the restrictions that the press people were looking to impose on her interview with President Teresa Sullivan. In a Sept. 16 missive, she wrote to her handlers: “As for the presence of other people in the interview: If that’s the only way I’ll be allowed to talk to President Sullivan, then so be it. But I imagine a university president is fully capable of getting through a phone conversation, without help. My article will obviously mention the way UVA has sought to restrict and pad my access to its administrators.”


And who was able to get Brodhead for an interview? Anyone?



Edited by Quasimodo, Dec 19 2014, 08:27 PM.
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Assistant to The Devil Himself
RS and Erdely felt safe doing this with a gang rape story.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/education/university-of-virginia-officials-blast-media-coverage.html?_r=0

University of Virginia Officials Blast Media Coverage

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑADEC. 19, 2014

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — While saying they remain determined to combat sexual assault, leaders of the University of Virginia on Friday publicly pushed back against the damage done to its reputation by a discredited account of a gang rape at a fraternity house.

A month ago, Rolling Stone published its article about a woman who said seven men had assaulted her at a party here two years ago amid an alcohol-soaked social scene of fraternity brothers misbehaving with impunity. News organizations followed by swarming into this quiet town, many of them giving bruising assessments of one of the nation’s elite public universities.

For weeks, university officials were careful not to strike a defensive tone, emphasizing that whatever doubts there were about the account, they saw a problem that needed addressing. But on Friday, the university’s rector, George Keith Martin, opened a meeting of its governing Board of Visitors with a broadside at the news media.

“Our tightly knit community has experienced the full fury of drive-by journalism in the 21st century — of callous indifference to the truth and callous indifference to the consequences,” he said, adding, “our great university’s reputation has been unfairly tarnished.”

Before reciting a long list of things the administration is doing to make the campus safer, Teresa A. Sullivan, the university president, said, “Our concern with sexual assault was not something that started with the Rolling Stone article.” And she said she felt compelled to state that “UVA’s climate and culture are generally healthy.”

Many of the changes she cited, like improved lighting and hiring more counselors, had to do with crime prevention and response. But changing the social culture — what activists combating sexual assault say is the crux of the matter — is more of a work in progress.

Last week, Dr. Sullivan appointed a committee to tackle that issue, “including our current housing policy, and the use of alcohol and drugs,” she said. It is not clear what that will mean, but Dr. Sullivan said one possibility is significantly expanding campus housing.

A large percentage of students live off-campus, in apartments or fraternity and sorority houses, where the university has no jurisdiction. Alcohol is much more readily accessible there than in dormitories.

After the Rolling Stone article, Dr. Sullivan suspended all fraternities’ social activity until January, and set out to develop new agreements setting standards of conduct for them and other campus groups. She said that a draft agreement should be ready for review by year’s end.

Activists have voiced concerns that the Rolling Stone episode could undermine people’s willingness to believe victims, and weaken the university’s resolve to address the problem.

The article drew fire for its apparent blanket acceptance of the account told by the victim, known only as Jackie.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/uva-alleges-error-rolling-stone-reporting-discredited-gang/story?id=27728915

U.Va. Alleges Error in Rolling Stone Reporting Before Discredited Gang-Rape Story, Emails Show
By ASHLEY BRIDGES, KATHERINE FAULDERS and JOSH MARGOLIN



In the weeks before the University of Virginia was made the subject of a scathing magazine piece about campus rape, the school???s public-relations team raised issues about an alleged incident this year that, they said, didn???t happen, according to documents released today.

What was not discussed, though, was the shocking 2012 fraternity-house gang rape that Rolling Stone magazine focused on in a now-discredited November piece.

U.Va. officials declined to discuss the documents, emailed to ABC News today in response to a public-records request. And Rolling Stone also had no comment.

At one point in the 104-pages of emails released, university spokesman Anthony de Bruyn wrote??to a Rolling Stone fact-checker that an issue had already been raised with the article???s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

???As I mentioned to you, we have expressed our concern to Sabrina regarding what we believe to be her mischaracterization of facts about a case that occurred in Spring 2014,??? de Bruyn wrote on Nov. 13, a week before the story ran. ???I recall I mentioned this to you on the phone. It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension. This is in fact objectively false.???

De Bruyn declined to say more??in the exchange, citing student confidentiality laws. And he would not say anything after the U.Va. governing board met in Charlottesville today.

???The university remains focused on the well-being of all students, and especially, any survivor of sexual assault,??? he said in an email. ???There is important work ahead regarding efforts to strengthen student safety, and the university respectfully declines comment on the records released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.???

Rolling Stone???s spokeswoman said an internal review of the story is continuing. But the magazine has backed away from key points after acknowledging that Erdely did not contact a key person in the narrative at the request of the article???s central figure, rape victim ???Jackie.???

From the emails released today, it appears that Erdely explained in writing her story in the broadest of terms.

On Sept. 5, Erdely wrote to Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo: ???I'm writing an article about rape/rape culture on college campuses, and would very much like to talk to you about the ways in which sexual assault is handled at University of Virginia.???

The emails give little additional information about Erdely???s reporting process, except to show she engaged in fairly typical discussions about arranging meetings with officials and balking at perceived interference from public relations staffers. Interactions between U.Va. officials and the magazine???s fact-checker were also pretty standard.

Rolling Stone???s reporting processes and standards have come under brutal criticism from both people inside the media and out. The sentiment was the first topic discussed earlier today when the university???s Board of Visitors convened for a special session on the main campus.

Chairman of the Board,??Rector George Keith Martin, called the reporting "a massive failure of journalistic ethics" and a piece of "drive-by journalism" that has unfairly tarnished the University's reputation.

Rector Martin said today that the university has ???nothing to fear from the truth??? and wants to bring "the full truth to the light of day."

Following the rector???s remarks,??President??Teresa??Sullivan presented a progress report on safety measures, resources and short, medium and long-term goals.

By??January 15, 2015??-- the first day of fraternity recruitment -- the university will upgrade??its??security camera system on campus and work with merchants on "The Corner" to install security cameras. Lighting on crosswalks on and adjacent to campus will also be enhanced along with intensified University Police Department patrols.

Sullivan said??she also plans to reach out to high school students, noting that??50 percent of students who enter college at the University of Virginia are drinking regularly and have experienced a form of sexual trauma.

In the long-term, Sullivan emphasized the importance for the school to examine students' social life. She??said she??hopes the culture can change by talking more openly about healthy sexual relationships and by changing the??mindsets??brought with new students from high school.

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Emails Indicate Rolling Stone Failed To Vet UVA Rape Accuser’s Claims

Posted By Chuck Ross On 10:20 PM 12/19/2014 In | No Comments

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Perhaps the most glaring part of the 104 pages of emails sent between Rolling Stone magazine and University of Virginia administrators and staffers is what is not discussed in the documents, which were released Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by The Daily Caller and other outlets.

The emails, sent between various UVA employees and Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely and fact-checker Elisabeth Garber-Paul, contain no indication that the article’s central story — a claim made by a student named Jackie that she had been gang-raped in 2012 by seven fraternity members — was vetted by the magazine.

The emails also show that Erdely was told that information she had received about an alleged serial rapist — unrelated to Jackie’s claim — was inaccurate — though it appears Erdely failed to heed the warning.

Erdely’s 9,000-word article now appears to be a farce, based on false claims made by Jackie. Erdely’s reporting methods have also been called into question after it was revealed that she failed to get in touch with many of the central characters in the story — including the men Jackie claimed had raped her as well as three friends Jackie said talked her out of reporting the attack.

On Nov. 7, Garber-Paul, who is listed as an assistant editor at Rolling Stone, contacted UVA spokesman Anthony de Bruyn, saying that she was fact-checking Erdely’s article and wanted to “make sure the university is being represented as accurately as possible.”

According to the emails, a phone interview was conducted on Nov. 10, and Garber-Paul, who previously worked for the abortion activist website RH Reality Check, submitted follow-up questions the next day. None of those questions concerned Jackie’s claim or an investigation into it. Instead, Garber-Paul asked about UVA’s general policy towards sexual assault claims.

The only mention of Jackie in the 100-plus pages of emails came in an exchange between Erdely and Emily Renda, a friend of Jackie’s who works for the school and who put her in touch with the reporter.

“You figure into the article as a survivor, activist and mentor/support for Jackie,” Erdely wrote to Renda.

It is unclear if de Bruyn and Garber-Paul discussed Jackie’s case in a phone conversation. Reached by phone on Friday, Garber-Paul told The Daily Caller that she was unable to comment. De Bruyn also declined to comment. Erdely has been in hiding for weeks.

Rolling Stone has hinted that fact-checkers may not have expended much effort in investigating Jackie’s claims. The magazine admitted in a Dec. 5 editor’s note that Erdely had made a mistake by honoring Jackie’s wishes to not contact the men she said raped her.

Discussion of one vignette contained in Erdely’s article also stands out in the emails.

In her article, Erdely provided shorter stories from other students besides Jackie as well as background information about how the school handles sexual assault cases. All of that information was crafted into a bombshell piece intended to paint the picture that UVA was a hotbed of sexual assault — which students and administrators tolerated.

In her Nov. 19 piece, Erdely wrote of a student named Stacy, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a fellow student in Spring 2014. Erdely claimed she had been told that the woman’s alleged assailant had assaulted at least three women and was suspended from the school for only one year.

Erdely wrote, quoting Stacy:

“Cause he’s a multiple assailant, I’d been told so many times that that was grounds for expulsion!” So she was stunned when she learned his actual penalty: a one-year suspension. (Citing privacy laws, UVA would not comment on this or any case.)”

But emails show that administrators informed Erdely that the story she had been told was not accurate.

“Your characterization of the facts of the spring 2014 case you referenced during our interview is incorrect,” de Bruyn wrote Erdely in an Oct. 9 email.

Erdely responded, asking for clarification on what was incorrect. De Bruyn said he could not specify.

In a Nov. 13 email, de Bruyn broached the same story with Garber-Paul.

“As I mentioned to you, we have expressed our concern to Sabrina regarding what we believe to be her mischaracterization of facts about a case that occurred in Spring 2014,” wrote de Bruyn.

“It has been brought to our attention by a few students that Sabrina has spoken to that she is referencing an incident where a male student raped three different women and received a one-year suspension. This is in fact objectively false.”

Erdely’s emails to the school began on Sept. 5, the released documents show.

On that day she contacted university dean Nicole Eramo, who works with victims of sexual assault, requesting an interview to discuss “the ways in which sexual assault is handled at University of Virginia.”

Eramo responded the next day, telling Erdely that a few of her students had mentioned the article. She asked Erdely when she hoped to conduct the interview, though the session apparently never took place.

The emails also show Erdely playing hardball in order to get an interview with UVA president Teresa Sullivan. They show Erdely going back and forth with the PR department to set terms of the interview.

And Erdely bristled at the school’s request that her interview with Sullivan be conducted with a PR staffer present.

In a Sept. 15 email to Charles McCance, a member of the PR team, Erdely wrote “You refer to ‘we’ with regard to the upcoming conversation – but I do hope that my interview with President Sullivan will be one-on-one, as I don’t generally conduct interviews with PR people sitting in.”

The next day, McCance responded saying that Sullivan would be unavailable for the interview because of unexpected demands. He also said that someone would be in the room during the interview on whatever future date it would be conducted.

Erdely was not pleased with either bit of news. She accepted the stipulation of a PR presence begrudgingly, writing, “Then so be it.”

Erdely also made it known that her article would make note of what she believed was improper treatment by the school.

“My article with obviously mention the way UVA has sought to restrict and pad my access to its administrators,” Erdely threatened.

The reporter made true on that promise, writing:

And yet the UVA public-relations team seemed unenthused about this article, canceling my interview with the head of UVA’s Sexual Misconduct Board, and forbidding other administrators from cooperating; even students seemed infected by their anxiety about how members of the administration might appear. And when President Sullivan was at last made available for an interview, her most frequently invoked answer to my specific questions about sexual-assault handling at UVA – while two other UVA staffers sat in on the recorded call – was “I don’t know.”

Sullivan sprung into action after the article was published — despite there being little to no evidence to support Jackie’s claim. the president suspended all Greek life activity until next year.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/19/emails-indicate-rolling-stone-failed-to-vet-uva-rape-accusers-claims/
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-board-leader-denounces-drive-by-journalism-of-rolling-stone/2014/12/19/47980410-87b7-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html

U-Va. board leader denounces ‘drive-by journalism’ of Rolling Stone’s rape article

By Nick Anderson December 19 at 7:06 PM

The leader of the University of Virginia’s governing board on Friday denounced Rolling Stone magazine for an article on an alleged gang rape at U-Va. that he likened to a drive-by assault.

“Like a neighborhood thrown into chaos by drive-by violence, our tightly knit community has experienced the full fury of drive-by journalism in the 21st century,” U-Va. Rector George Keith Martin said at a meeting of the Board of Visitors in Charlottesville.

Martin spoke exactly one month after publication of an article that sent shock waves through the U-Va. community, with its portrayal of a student whose account of a gang rape at a fraternity house was met with official indifference.

In the past two weeks, the article has unraveled, with key elements of the allegation falling into doubt and the magazine’s managing editor apologizing for discrepancies in the account and omissions in its reporting.

In hindsight, Martin said Friday afternoon in a 15-minute address, it was the magazine that showed “callous indifference” to the truth and the consequences of its reporting.

Martin also offered a statement of regret to people at the prestigious public university he said were harmed by the article and its aftermath.

At a Nov. 25 board meeting, the rector had expressed “our collective sorrow” to survivors of sexual assault at the university.

“Let me begin today by expressing our collective sorrow also for the students, the student affairs professionals, the fraternities and the countless others on [campus] who have been wronged — wrongly maligned and traumatized by the Rolling Stone article and the reaction to it,” Martin said Friday. “We are sorry.”

Rolling Stone spokeswoman Melissa Bruno declined to comment on Martin’s remarks.

The article said the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at U-Va. was the scene of the alleged gang rape at a party on Sept. 28, 2012. The fraternity has denied the allegation, saying that no social event was held at the house that weekend. Its house was vandalized after the article was published, and its members were vilified.

Ben Warthen, an attorney who has represented Phi Kappa Psi, also declined to comment Friday on the rector’s remarks.

On Nov. 22, as the uproar over the article was mushrooming, U-Va. President Teresa A. Sullivan announced a suspension of social activities at fraternities and sororities until Jan. 9. National fraternity and sorority advocates in recent days have called on Sullivan to rescind the suspension, but the university has left it in place. Sullivan says she and student leaders of the Greek-letter organizations are working on ways to bolster safety. The campus, known as the Grounds, is largely quiet now as students have finished first-semester exams and have left for winter break.
U-Va. timeline

The board, meeting for the second time since the Rolling Stone article appeared, discussed in closed and open session various issues related to the article and efforts to prevent sexual violence at U-Va. Martin pledged to make public as much as the law allows from an independent counsel’s review of sexual violence issues at the 23,000-student university.

State Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) has named attorneys from the O’Melveny and Myers firm to lead that inquiry.

Sullivan has asked Charlottesville police to investigate the rape allegation, and Police Capt. Gary Pleasants said the investigation is continuing.

At the board meeting, Sullivan outlined steps the university has taken to prevent sexual violence and promote safety in general. She said U-Va. has been attuned to those issues since she took office in 2010, citing, among other actions, a national conference on sexual misconduct the university hosted in February.

Sullivan said she has been struck by the courage of survivors of sexual violence who have told their stories in recent weeks. She said these accounts often date from incidents that occurred in childhood, during high school or at other colleges.

“Or it might be from here,” she told the board. “And then they often add, ‘How can I help?’ And I ask, ‘How can we help you?’ ”

Safety issues at U-Va. intensified after the disappearance in September of sophomore Hannah Graham, whose remains were discovered in October in Albemarle County after a lengthy search. Police believe she was the victim of an abduction and homicide.

University officials told the board that they are spending about $3.5 million for physical safety improvements to the campus, including $1 million on a surveillance-camera system and $2 million on lighting. They also have committed to spending about $2.5 million a year to enhance student counseling, sexual misconduct investigations and other services related to safety.

The bulk of that funding, about $1.6 million a year, will be used to deploy a team of “ambassadors” — unarmed but uniformed — around and near the campus to assist students who might need a ride or other help at any hour.

Board member Frank E. Genovese said individual students bear much of the responsibility for safety issues related to sex and alcohol. “They’ve got to start policing themselves, to a certain extent,” he said.

T. Rees Shapiro contributed to this report.
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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
Sullivan said she also plans to reach out to high school students, noting that 50 percent of students who enter college at the University of Virginia are drinking regularly and have experienced a form of sexual trauma.

In the long-term, Sullivan emphasized the importance for the school to examine students' social life. She said she hopes the culture can change by talking more openly about healthy sexual relationships and by changing the mindsets brought with new students from high school.


So where's the apology to the falsely-accused, and to all the rest of the Greek community?

Are they just collateral damage?

UVa will denounce RS; and call for more security, more teaching about alcohol abuse, and more instruction about sexual abusers. All "safe"
topics. But not a word about not making false accusations, or the presumption of innocence.

Edited by Quasimodo, Dec 20 2014, 08:21 AM.
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Quasimodo


Quote:
 
“My article with obviously mention the way UVA has sought to restrict and pad my access to its administrators,” Erdely threatened.


Were restrictions on access placed on Duke faculty and administrators?

Did everything have to go through the office of John Burness?

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Quasimodo

Quote:
 
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2014/12/board-holds-special-meeting-to-discuss-sexual-assault

Board holds special meeting to discuss sexual assault
Sullivan details several new safety initiative to combat sexual assault

by Andrew Elliott | Dec 19 2014 | 15 hours ago

The Cavalier Daily


The Board of Visitors convened in a special meeting Friday to discuss the University’s ongoing efforts to combat sexual assault.

Rector George Martin set the meeting’s tone early, acknowledging the tumultuous semester the University community has experienced.

(snip)

He said the Rolling Stone allegations, whose accuracy has been hotly refuted in the weeks since the article’s publication, were damaging to many individuals, to the community’s reputation, and to the greater cause of reducing sexual violence on Grounds.

“We are tempted to respond to these injustices with anger,” he said. “But a great University does not respond in anger. Its very mission is to teach the power of truth and reason over prejudice and passion. And we need to practice what we preach.”

[Does that preclude an apology?]

Because students involved in the article have not waived their privacy rights, he said, the University has been prevented from “calling attention to the false portrayal of its actions in the Rolling Stone article,” and from answering questions about what information University personnel were aware of before the article’s publication.

[Bureaucratic mumble...]

The Board quickly went into a closed executive session, which Martin said would offer members the opportunity to hear from legal counsel about what specific to the allegations could be disclosed publicly — though he noted members and administrators would refrain from discussing the findings of any investigations until they are completed.

[Bureaucratic mumble...]

After a 90-minute executive session, the Board heard from University President Teresa Sullivan about several long-term and short-term policies and proposals the University intends to put forward to help foster a safer environment for students on Grounds.

[I bet that didn't include safety from false accusations...]

Among a host of initiatives, Sullivan said the University will be installing upgraded lighting systems on Grounds, installing surveillance cameras across Grounds, collaborating with local merchants who wish to have cameras installed on their properties and developing a new “ambassador program,” which will bring 10-12 unarmed personnel to patrol the University area and provide students a “visible sign of security.”

Many of these efforts, Sullivan emphasized, were an ongoing part of the University’s plan to increase safety on and around Grounds, even before the Rolling Stone article was published.

Sullivan also approved the hiring of four new counselors — two at the Women’s Center, as part of an effort to offer long-term support groups for sexual assault survivors, and two who will work with Counseling and Psychological Services. These counselors come in addition to two recently hired Title IX investigators.

In the long term, she said the University community must work to change its culture, creating an environment with more consistent reporting of sexual assaults and better bystander intervention.

[And how about help for those who are falsely accused?]

"I believe U.Va. can be a leader in this effort,” she said. “We are in the spotlight, so we have the opportunity to lead."

[So did Duke; but it flubbed its moment.]

The Ad Hoc Group on University Climate and Culture, chaired by Sullivan, will meet again Monday to further develop and advance strategies for improving culture as well as University prevention and response efforts.

“I want to emphasize that we want our university to be a safe place for all of our students,” Sullivan said. “Not because we want to be compliant with the law, but because that’s the way [students] will learn best.”

Chief Operating Officer Pat Hogan offered a brief summary of the financial impact of the proposals Sullivan put forward. Improved lighting — a project already underway, he said, but now with an accelerated timeline — will cost $2 million, with an additional $430,000 for improving crosswalk safety. Upgrading the University’s camera system will top $1 million, while the ambassador program is expected to reach $800,000 and the four new counselors will cost $190,000 annually.

The Board then heard a presentation from Apalla Chopra, a legal representative from O’Melveny and Myers, the firm tasked by Attorney General Mark Herring to examine the University’s handling of sexual assault cases. Chopra offered a detailed overview of the various obligations and requirements set forth by the Clery Act, Title IX and the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act.

University Police Chief Michael Gibson rounded out the open session of the meeting, offering a brief introduction to the University’s Clery Act report — released this year on Sept. 30.

The Board is next scheduled to meet Feb. 19 and 20.
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Dec 19 2014, 07:33 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/12/19/u-va-rolling-stone-e-mails-highlight-universitys-attempt-to-correct-magazine/

U-Va.-Rolling Stone e-mails highlight university’s attempt to correct magazine
By Erik Wemple December 19 at 6:32 PM

Newly released emails show University of Virginia officials telling a Rolling Stone journalist that a sexual assault incident she was reporting on was “objectively false.”

[...]
How is this related to the timing of Sullivan suspending the frat's?
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