UVA Dean Sues The Fuck Out Of Rolling Stone Magazine

Washington Post - A University of Virginia associate dean of students filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine Tuesday, alleging that it portrayed her as callous and indifferent to allegations of sexual assault on campus and made her the university’s “chief villain” in a now-debunked article about a fraternity gang rape.

Nicole Eramo is seeking more than $7.5 million in damages from Rolling Stone; its parent company, Wenner Media; and Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the investigative journalist who wrote the explosive account of sexual assault on the campus in Charlottesville. The magazine retracted the article after news organizations and the Columbia University journalism school found serious flaws in it.

Eramo, who is the university’s chief administrator dealing with sexual assaults, argues in the lawsuit that the article destroyed her credibility, permanently damaged her reputation and caused her emotional distress. She assailed the account as containing numerous falsehoods that the magazine could have avoided if it had worked to verify the story of its main subject, a student named Jackie who alleged she was gang-raped in 2012 and that the university mishandled her case.

NPR - “Erdely and Rolling Stone claimed — both in the article and in a slew of media appearances and interviews designed to increase publicity for the article — that Dean Eramo intentionally tried to coddle Jackie to persuade her not to report her rape; that she was indifferent to Jackie’s allegations; that she discouraged Jackie from sharing her story with others; that she ‘abuse[d]’ Jackie; that she did ‘nothing’ in response to Jackie’s allegations; that she claimed that UVA withholds rape statistics ‘because nobody wants to send their daughter to the rape school'; that she did not report Jackie’s alleged assault to the police; that she ‘brushed off’ Jackie; and that she actively sought to ‘suppress’ Jackie’s supposed gang rape. … These statements, and the portrayal of Dean Eramo, in ‘A Rape on Campus’ and in Erdely and Rolling Stone’s subsequent public statements, are categorically false.”

The complaint alleges that since the story’s publication, Eramo has received letters and emails from across the country calling her things like “evil,” a “wretched rape apologist” and a “disgusting, worthless piece of trash.”

Advertisement

At one point in the article, which has been deleted from Rolling Stone’s website but still lives on various Web archival sites, Erdely says Eramo told the rape victim in the story that U.Va. failed to publish all of its data on campus sexual assault “because nobody wants to send their daughter to the rape school.” The piece also suggested that Eramo gently urged female victims of sexual assault on campus not to go public or file reports with authorities.

…

Wanted to blog this yesterday afternoon but then my boss and half our staff getting arrested in the middle of NYC was the lead story on every news outlet so I held off. But make no mistake about it, these stories are making me absolutely giddy. GIDDY. Letting Rolling Stone know that you can’t just publish trash with literally 0 fact checking that ruins people’s lives just to sell some magazines and generate some pageviews without there being some consequences. I mean I know that not a single person involved with the story has lost their job or been professionally disciplined in any way (which is MIND BLOWING), but no matter. Here comes some of the people you demonized about to start suing you for all your worth. Hope every single person that goes to UVA, works at UVA, took a tour at UVA one time 8 year ago, drives by UVA on their way to work files a similar suit against Rolling Stone and just drives them directly into the ground. Still waiting on the frat to file theirs, but here’s to hoping it’s for 100 bajillion dollars and Sabrina Erdley’s public flogging.

Tell em how you feel Dean.

“Rolling Stone and Erdely’s highly defamatory and false statements about Dean Eramo were not the result of an innocent mistake,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court. “They were the result of a wanton journalist who was more concerned with writing an article that fulfilled her preconceived narrative about the victimization of women on American college campuses, and a malicious publisher who was more concerned about selling magazines to boost the economic bottom line for its faltering magazine, than they were about discovering the truth or actual facts.”