YES, IT WAS AN EPIC HOAX. Rolling Stone Campus Rape Hoax Turns Five: Lessons From The Journalism Scandal
Five years ago this month, Rolling Stone published what may arguably be its most famous article to date: “A Rape on Campus.” Written by veteran journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the November 2014 article detailed a purported brutal gang rape on the grounds of the University of Virginia. The story immediately went viral and resulted in a swift suspension of all campus Greek life at UVA.
It was also a hoax.
Soon after its publication it was exposed as largely fiction, tarnishing Rolling Stone‘s reputation, discrediting Erdely, spawning several lawsuits that resulted in millions of dollars in damages, and generating a comprehensive forensic journalism analysis that revealed, in the words of one Rolling Stone editor, an “institutional failure” committed by “every single person at every level” of the story’s process. The effects of this journalistic fiasco are still felt half a decade later, and the entire saga is no less relevant today than it was in 2014.
thecollegefix-D. Payne
