Rolling Stone Retracts Article on Rape at University of Virginia By RAVI SOMAIYA APRIL 5, 2015Text strings of interest that don’t appear in the NYT article include:
hoax
Coakley
catfish
Haven Monahan
Dawson’s Creek
vandalism
What about the 13,000 word retraction by the Columbia School of Journalism posted today by Rolling Stone:hoax — No, nor fraud, no fiasco
Coakley — No.
The problems with the article started with its source, Mr. [Jan] Wenner said. He described her as “a really expert fabulist storyteller” who managed to manipulate the magazine’s journalism process. When asked to clarify, he said that he was not trying to blame Jackie, “but obviously there is something here that is untruthful, and something sits at her doorstep.”
So if Jackie is “a really expert fabulist storyteller,” shouldn’t her last name be finally revealed to give her future victims a sporting chance to avoid her?
catfish — No
Haven Monahan — Yes, twice in a single paragraph, but not in dull, nothing-to-see-here-let’s-move-along-folks fashion:
If Erdely had called Kathryn Hendley and Alex Stock – their true names – to check their sides of Jackie’s account of Sept. 28 and 29, they would have denied saying any of the words Jackie attributed to them (as Ryan would have as well). They would have described for Erdely a history of communications with Jackie that would have left the reporter with many new questions. For example, the friends said that Jackie told them that her date on Sept. 28 was not a lifeguard but a student in her chemistry class named Haven Monahan. (The Charlottesville police said in March they could not identify a UVA student or any other person named Haven Monahan.) All three friends would have spoken to Erdely, they said, if they had been contacted.
email — lots of references to Rubin Erdely researching her story via email, but zero references to the Glitch in the Matrix email that Jackie sent Ryan under the name Haven Monahan five days after the purported gang rape on broken glass.
Dawson’s Creek – Jackie’s email to Ryan from a catfished Haven Monahan account was a pastiche of sentimental stuff plagiarized from Dawson’s Creek and other bits of pop culture.
vandalism — No mention of the actual Night of Broken Glass at UVA when outraged Social Justice Warriors smashed the windows of the libeled Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in response to the Rolling Stone article. Washington Times reporter Jeffrey Scott Shapiro had no trouble finding several of the perps to interview them about their crimes, but I’ve never heard any more attention devoted to this pogrom.
