There are two separate controversies this week over rape stories that have been challenged by critics. Both stories involve leading U.S. universities. Unlike the Duke Lacrosse controversy, neither school is accused of wrongdoing. Rolling Stone magazine has apologized for shocking failures in reporting a sensational rape story where a woman named Jackie alleged that she was gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, but the Washington Post reported on discrepancies in the account, including the fact that no party was held at the fraternity on the day in question. In the meantime, Lena Dunham’s story of being raped in college has been challenged as containing discrepancies and the man who has faced the most accusations is now considering a libel lawsuit against the author and director.
The Rolling Stone Controversy
Rolling Stone magazine ran the story containing detailed accounts of the rape of Jackie, but it agreed to a demand by the alleged victim not to interview with accused man. It was an astonishing lapse of journalistic principles and the magazine also failed to fully investigate the details of the alleged rape. Notably, however, the magazine issued an apology but then removed this line: “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.” That line was replaced with this line “These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.”
The story “A Rape on Campus” by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, discussed how Jackie was a freshman in 2012 when she was forced to perform oral sex by seven men at the prestigious Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. Various people raised questions over the reporting, including the fact that some of Jackie’s closest friends questioned her account despite Erdely’s insistence that her friends’ accounts were “consistent” with her story. These inconsistencies include Jackie’s initial claim, according to friends and the Washington Post, that she had been raped by 5 men and then later claiming it was 7. Other friends said that there was an absence of any physical injury despite the claim of the magazine that she emerged bloodied and battered. The fraternity also said that there was no party on the day identified by Jackie and that her identification of “Drew” did not match anyone at the house and that in conflict with her claims, no one at the house worked as lifeguards at the pool. One of the named attackers was from a different house and no one by his name is a member at the Phi Kappa Psi. The man named said that he never met Jackie.
The fact that the magazine agreed not to interview the accused was widely condemned. The magazine stated that “[b]ecause of the sensitive nature of Jackie’s story, we decided to honor her request not to contact the man who she claimed orchestrated the attack on her nor any of the men who she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her.” A Rolling Stone editor claimed that it could not reach some of the men, though others including the Post were able to do so.
The Post details clearly identified individuals who were never contacted by the magazine. The Post reported that the person identified in the Rolling Stone story as “Cindy” told it that Erdely’s version of events was “completely false.”
The story of the brutal rape is still available on the Internet with the addition of the apology.
The Lena Dunham Controversy
A man named “Barry” is reportedly considering a libel lawsuit against Lena Dunham for her account of being raped at Oberlin College. She supplied details of the rape by a “mustachioed campus Republican” named Barry. Dunham’s widely acclaimed memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, included an identification of Barry as the rapist and describes him as a 19-year-old student who was known as a “poor loser” at poker with a flamboyant mustache who worked at the campus library and hosted a radio talk show. She also stated that Barry was the “campus’s resident conservative.”
The seemed to reduce the suspects to one man named Barry who was on the campus at the time and named Barry who claims that he has been hounded by the allegation that he is a rapist and that Dunham has refused to speak with him or clear his name.
Dunham’s high visibility has made the rape allegation international news and that has magnified the alleged injury to Barry. She received a $3.7 million advance for the memoir and is a leading producer, writer, and director, including her celebrated work on on the HBO series Girls.
Dunham not only claims that Barry raped her but gives highly graphic details of the encounter. She also quotes a friend who said that after she “once her friend Julia woke up the morning after sex with Barry, and the wall was spattered with blood. Spattered, she said, “like a crime scene.” But he was nice and took her for the morning-after pill and named the baby they weren’t having.”
The conservative website Breitbart has investigated the claims and identified what it says are clear discrepancies. The Washington Post blog has said that those discrepancies offer a solid basis for a libel action.
It is difficult to judge the merits of the claim. However, a libel lawsuit could force a response from Dunham and discovery into her account. Such an action could be based on not just libel but false light. The latter tort is defined
in Restatement (Second) of Torts, Sec. 652E as:
(1) the portrayal must be found to be “highly offensive to a reasonable person” and
(2) the actor had knowledge of or acted in reckless disregard as to the falsity of the publicized matter and the false light in which the other would be placed.
The risk for Dunham is that there may be enough details — and alleged discrepancies — to get such a case to discovery and possibly trial. Discovery could result in depositions of an array of acquaintances and Dunham herself under oath. “Barry” has reportedly set up a donation site to pay for “costs and related fees associated with defending Barry’s reputation including, but not limited to, potentially pursuing Lena Dunham and Penguin Random House for harm caused to Barry’s reputation from the publication and sale of Ms. Dunham’s memoir.”
Michael H:
Oh, so there was ANOTHER conservative at the time who worked at the library and hosted a conservative radio show, and it’s a complete coincidence that she used the name “Barry” which matched a person with that exact description?
Was the wall still splattered with blood?
Women should teach their daughters not to lie.
Do people still think Michael Brown was innocent, in spite of the outcome of the grand jury deliberation, and forensic evidence such as a 20 foot blood trail that proved he turned and went back towards the officer? The documented fact that witnesses admitted to making up their stories? Have they even bothered to read the evidence?
Sorry, but cops have a right to survive. They don’t have to just stand there and let a 250 pound 6 foot plus man, who just tried to take their gun, try to physically engage a second time. If you’re going to fight with a cop, your chances of survival just decreased. Do we need to repost all the instance of cops getting killed or seriously injured by unarmed men who grabbed their gun or beat them?
What do you mean “the frat boys will get a fair hearing”? On what charges?
The police were never called. The “rape” was never reported. It could not be investigated. The “victim” did not seek medical attention. There was no collection of evidence. The police were not sent to the scene of the alleged crime.
They will never get a “fair hearing” because there will never be a hearing.
Hopefully the frat boys get a fair hearing, just like the police shooting victims did….oh wait.
I’ll add “the distinction between the accuser and the accused” to the ever-growing list of distinctions you’re unwilling or unable to make, Inga.
Chip, upstream we were commenting on the gross mischaracterizations of other’s comments. Your 5:19 comment does not reflect what I said, not even close.
Rape is a heinous crime, with severe consequences for (most people) convicted of it. As a criminal offense, the standard of evidence required for conviction is high.
“He said, she said” is not a high standard of evidence, so people look for corroboration of an alleged victim’s story. Asking for evidence is most emphatically NOT “blaming the victim” or anything of the sort.
If anyone takes the trouble to read the Slate article I linked to earlier, you’ll see that there’s a lot of sexual activity on campuses that gets called “rape” or “assault” that doesn’t really look like anything more than a girl’s right to change her mind. Getting hysterical over that stuff is what really undermines the credibility of the victims of true assault.
Msjettexas:
If she did admit in her book that she molested her sister, than she herself is a rapist by her own words. I haven’t read the book so I don’t know what she wrote.
Here we go. Lena Dunham’s publisher now says that the character “Barry” in Dunham’s autobio, the man she accused of having raped her while they were both students at Oberlin, is a made up character.
The name ‘Barry’ referenced in the book is a pseudonym,” the publisher told TheWrap exclusively. “Random House, on our own behalf and on behalf of our author, regrets the confusion that has led attorney Aaron Minc to post on GoFundMe on behalf of his client, whose first name is Barry.”
Dunham’s memoir details the person in question inserting his fingers in her vagina at one point without consent, and later removing a condom twice without consent during a particularly rough sexual encounter. During an interview with Howard Stern, Dunham agreed that the behavior fell under the term “rape.”
Read more here.
Well this will leave you infuriated.
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2014/12/college_rape_campus_sexual_assault_is_a_serious_problem_but_the_efforts.html
Hopefully the frat boys get a fair hearing, just like the police shooting victims did….oh wait.
Isaac:
“If a someone rapes another person, they should be imprisoned for a minimum of ten years. If someone falsely accuses another of raping them the sentence should be the same. If newspapers or any part of the media contribute by negligently supporting the false accuser, they should be open to massive financial penalties through the law.”
Sounds like justice to me.
Didn’t your mother teach you that two wrongs don’t make a right?
I have no idea what this is supposed to be saying.
I’m guessing that you’re presupposing that somehow Jackie is in fact a victim, but we just don’t know what. So it’s ok to turn the fury of the crowd on any random set of males, b/c there’s a guilty one in there somewhere.
Putrid. Just putrid.
Lee – true, the media could be lying that there was no event on the night in question, or any pledges at that time, or anyone who worked as a life guard.
I say let the court hash it out. Sue the accuser, Rolling Stone, and Time, and we will see how it plays out. At least everything will be released as public record after it’s done.
@zedalis~ Lena Dunham was paid $3.7 million to write her book, but the Girls creator’s first book, ‘Not That Kind of Girl’, has been hotly anticipated since they first knew it existed.
I think her career is already in trouble because of the incestuous molestation of her much younger sister that she claims to have done. That’s hard to take, even for a middle of the road Liberal. My mother is liberal and is appalled by this woman’s claims and now can’t stand her. Only in Hollywood, can a messed up young woman admitting to sexually molestation make it big. . . puke!
Elaine:
The problem that I have with the letter is that the roommate did not say she encountered a blood soaked crime scene. Nor do all of her friends support her claim.
Instead, we have a friend who noticed that the accuser became withdrawn and started going home more often.
That is not evidence that she was gang raped at a party, and her testimonial does not support it. Did she break up with her boyfriend? Fail a class? Have an eating disorder? Be unable to decide on a major or changing a major? Who knows? It could literally be anything.
What we do know is that there are enough discrepancies that this case should go to trial for libel. Let the court thrash it out, and we can follow the outcome of the case closely.
Karen – there are a significant number of freshmen who drop out after the first semester, that is why there are openings in the freshman class after Christmas. There are a ton of reasons, besides being raped, for her to change and drop out.
And the “activities” of the frat house aren’t going to make or break the frat boys. False allegations might, granted, but that their oh so ‘important’ activities were curtailed….yawn.
Inga – the important thing those fraternity boys are doing is called ‘bonding.’ They will be brothers for life. You and I both know you cannot tell someone what it is like to get a Masters, they have to get it. And once you get one all others with the degree are your peers. You have joined that brotherhood.
Have you noticed how these stories are ALWAYS white upper middle-class liberal women accusing white middle-class conservative males? It’s never white women accusing black males, or asian males, or hispanic males. Or women accusing other women of rape. It’s always white women accusing white males. Isn’t that at least a bit curious to you?
Equally wrong Chipster. Didn’t your mother teach you that two wrongs don’t make a right?
how quickly they demonized the potential victim
Yes! Why angry crowds broke some of the windows of the Phi Psi house, which was wrongly accused of requiring its pledges to commit gang rape.
And the university shut down the activities of all fraternities for the rest of the year, on the basis of an unsubstantiated and–we now know–factually inaccurate accusation of criminal activity.
Those are the victims you have in mind, aren’t they, Inga? ‘Cause right now they’re the only verifiable victims of this mess.
Chip – Inga would like all the females a UVA to be required to take the morning after pill just in case they were raped.