on the Rolling Stone story “A Rape on Campus” is somewhat anticlimactic given how much we already knew about the fiasco and its aftermath. But at least it triggered the magazine’s official retraction of the article, which was discredited months ago.
Still, the report should be read by every crusading journalist or journalism student tempted to short-circuit normal fact-checking and stifle skepticism because of belief in an issue’s importance. Reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely was looking for “a single, emblematic college rape case” — and thinking she found it, threw journalistic conventions to the wind. As did her editors. As the Columbia report observes, “The editors invested Rolling Stone’s reputation in a single source.”
Yet whether Rolling Stone has actually learned anything is not entirely clear. T incredibly, that Jann S. Wenner, the publisher, says Erdely will continue to write for the publication.
Be that as it may, who will continue to read her?
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