Rolling Stone published a Columbia Graduate School of Journalism report of its wildly inaccurate story about a supposed gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity in 2012. The report showed that the reporter failed to get in touch with three friends of the alleged victim to get their stories which did not jibe with that of the victim. The magazine could not locate the victim’s date who was one of the main perpetrators but failed to inform readers that they could not verify his existence. And finally the reporter did not offer fraternity officials enough details about the story so they could mount a rebuttal. (Rolling Stone, April 5, 2015, by Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll and Derek Kravitz)
Steve Coll and Sheila Coronel agreed that the one glaring failure was putting two much faith in a single source, the alleged victim, to the exclusion of others who might have contributed to the story, in this case, the three friends. (Columbia Journalism Review, April 5, 2015, by Elizabeth Sayd)
In an analysis of the potential for libel charges against the Rolling Stone, law professor Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy in The Washington Post, April 5, 2015, writes that there is clear evidence of negligence in the reporting so that it is possible that the fraternity or its members could sue. Given negligence and standing as private figures, the fraternity members would have to show they suffered actual damages that might include injury to their reputations and “personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering.”
Update: The University of Virginia fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, in fact announced their intention to bring legal action against Rolling Stone. A fraternity spokesman said they had hired an attorney, calling the article “reckless.” Should file a lawsuit, the fraternity faces stiff challenges. (The New York Times, April 7, 2015, by Ravi Somaiya)