Posted on 12/05/2014 5:43:28 AM PST by Kaslin
Rolling Stone magazine and its reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely are facing a great deal of skepticism about a story called "A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA." The article tells the story of "Jackie," a University of Virginia student who says she was gang raped at a fraternity party early in her freshman year.
There are solid journalistic reasons to question Erdely's reporting. She failed, as Slate and others have objected, to get any statements from the accused, while offering feeble and conflicting accounts about why -- first saying the young men were hard to find, and then explaining that the victim was uncomfortable about having them contacted.
Richard Bradley, a former editor of George magazine who's seen hoaxes, urges skepticism about this story because it fits a little too neatly into a preferred leftist narrative: southern college, white fraternity boys and the campus rape culture. Fair enough. Others recall the panting eagerness of the press (and members of the faculty at Duke) to believe the worst about the lacrosse players.
As someone who believes that campus rape is a genuine problem, I found some aspects of the Rolling Stone tale not credible. The young woman claims, for example, that she was pushed into a glass table that smashed beneath her and then gang raped by seven students on cut glass. She says she then stumbled from the frat house bleeding and disheveled, yet her friends discouraged her from going to the hospital because it might quash their plans to rush at fraternities.
Without knowing more, it's impossible to say what the truth is about this woman's experience -- though I imagine something traumatic happened to her. But if, for whatever reason, we learn that all or part of her story isn't true, it should not be seen as some grand refutation of the problem of rape. "If false, Rolling Stone story could set rape victims back decades," headlined the Washington Examiner. Why?
Tawana Brawley was found to be lying, but her dishonesty didn't invalidate every rape claim in America. The left likes to put people in categories: women, good; men, bad. Black inner-city residents, good; white police, bad. Environmentalists, honest; businessmen, liars. And on it goes. For a time, when the nation was gripped by an epidemic of child abuse hysteria, we were told that "children never lie" about these things, even as coached tots were telling tales of being sexually abused in spaceships with samurai swords. The left will have its fables, whatever the strain on logic and common sense.
We don't need "Jackie" to be honest to know that campus rape is real. We have reports throughout the nation, lawsuits, complaints and word of mouth. One study put the number of sexual assaults at 100,000 a year, which may be high, but good data is elusive for crimes that nearly always entail he said/she said and are accompanied by shame.
Certainly the activists' demand that campuses handle these cases without traditional protections for the accused -- such as the right to confront witnesses or be represented by counsel -- represents a gross retreat from constitutional principles, and it's a separate scandal that many colleges are doing just that. But neither should we dismiss these reports as simply the result of "post-sex regrets" by young women.
For centuries, western civilization recognized that women were vulnerable to sexual violence and abuse. Painstakingly, we erected a complex architecture of mores and laws to protect women from the worst kinds of men. Some of those protections now seem ridiculous -- such as the notion that a lady would never permit herself to be alone with a strange man, not even in an elevator.
But no one should be surprised that when the guardrails of sexual behavior were swept away in the flood of the sexual revolution, predatory men were handed a golden opportunity. A 2002 study by David Lisak of the University of Massachusetts and Paul Miller of the Brown University School of Medicine found that 90 percent of rapes on college campuses are committed by serial offenders. A small percentage of men are committing most of the crimes.
There is a rape culture -- it's the hook-up culture that the left invented and celebrated as liberation. Until it's reversed, the rapes will continue.
This whole story smells like the fraud perpetrated by Janet Cooke of the Washington POst years ago.
Me believes the author of this peice planned the entire article around making this statement. It certainly makes a point. But it is out of place for the tenor, context and tempo of the rest of the article. I may need to read it again to understand if the author was building on innuendo prior to the money quote.
BTW - I do not dissagree with the author.
Yes, the Sexual Revolution that supposedly empowered women liberated men far more. Women are now expected to ‘put out’ on the first date. Ladies, any man who expects this is not worth the time you are spending on him. Wake up young women and value yourselves more than the ‘liberated’ women of the 60’s and beyond!
What the UVA rape case reveals is how quickly Democrat memes for the 2016 Presidential campaign will unravel when subjected to objective evaluation.
Interesting, isn’t it, how both the Lena Dunham and UVA allegations hit the media at about the same time? Too clever by half.
Since the DIM nominee will likely be female, and can’t talk about anything Obama has done, the “Male as aggressor/Female as victim” was intended to be a central focus leading up to the 2016 election. Kinda fun to watch both stories crash and burn.
“What the UVA rape case reveals is how quickly Democrat memes for the 2016 Presidential campaign will unravel when subjected to objective evaluation.”
It is unfortunate the GOP cowered in fear instead of attacking head on the “war on women” meme of the 2012 election. Had Romney turned Palin loose campaigning around the US for GOP, the American public would have seen which side was really perpetrating the war on women.
The fact remains, American College campuses remain one of the largest sections of society were men and women hook up for dating and for many eventual marriage. They’re young, they’re 18 to 26 predominantly and their looking for a mate whether they know it or not — and a high probability is that there’s more female to males looking for that eventuality — but that’s my own speculation.
I sometimes wonder if ‘evil ones’, or the mentally disturbed progressive feel like if left untouched and unsullied that the colleges become the breeding grounds and mills for more ‘white privileged’ or worse, the ‘white indifferent’ — who end up becoming those swing or undecideds that we hear about during major elections and that blacks will remain mired in the ‘Lord of the Flies’ culture they’ve created for themselves, and that feminism will erode away as smart college women and men learn that it takes a solid family to become economically competitive later in life.
“What the UVA rape case reveals”
We have a two year old story about a crime not reported to the police, told by an alleged victim who won’t reveal her identity, about alleged unidentified criminals whose whose actions have never been investigated, written by a reporter who did not verify any statements of the storyteller or try to interview most of the alleged participants, and published by a magazine whose political and social agenda the story supports.
In response to the the undocumented and unsourced article about an alleged incident the national press and activist groups scream in outrage, thousands of students march in protest demanding immediate punishment of the unknown alleged perpetrators, the reputation of a prestigious university is tarnished and the president of the university proclaims solidarity with the anonymous victim and panders to the crowd by closing down student run organizations to which 1/8 of the student population belongs.
In addition the alleged event occurred at the university founded by the founding father of the nation who penned the Declaration of Independence.
Coincidence, orchestrated, or just another day in what was once a great nation?
“As someone who believes that campus rape is a genuine problem, I found some aspects of the Rolling Stone tale not credible. The young woman claims, for example, that she was pushed into a glass table that smashed beneath her and then gang raped by seven students on cut glass. She says she then stumbled from the frat house bleeding and disheveled, yet her friends discouraged her from going to the hospital because it might quash their plans to rush at fraternities.”
How many Frat houses at UVA had glass tables, are there pictures,...then look for ones where a glass table is now missing...ask questions as to why and what happened to the table...look for traces of blood and broken glass in carpets or between cracks in a wood floor or linoleum...cleaning doesn’t get it all completely!
There are ways to track down the truth...
For the vast majority of fraternities glass tables are not a practical furniture item for obvious reasons.
Yeah well that is what I thought...so a glass table in a frat house might be unusual but not altogether out of the question. Such a frat house might stand out, especially to other female “visitors” who always know who has got what furniture, jewelry, or who has been sleeping with another’s boyfriend....!
By the way, one could coin a phrase...”trapped by hyenas...Bill had about as much life expectancy as a glass table at a UVA frat house party!”
One of the many things I wonder about her story’s when the lights finally came on. Somehow by the 7th guy, she is able to recognize him as someone in one of her classes.
There are certain things about her story that would be pretty easy to check out. Did the named fraternity have a party on said night? Was one of the juniors from said fraternity working at the pool as a lifeguard? Find out which anthropology course she took, and find the names of males in it, and compare to the pledge list of that fraternity. I could go on and on as to how this could be investigated.
Her story is very implausible to me. I can’t believe that she didn’t even go to the school clinic to be treated for her wounds.
Story’s was supposed to be story is.
Just another day...Anyone whio believes ANYTHING printed in Rolling Stone deserves to be played the fool. Unfortunately the fools vote...AND THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF THEM!
Misogynist! /sarc
Sabrina Rubin Erdely needs to be publicly shamed for this hoax, repeatedly, including her picture, all over the internet. Time to start using the full Saul Alinsky treatment on these leftwing phonies.
As a member of the frat accused, albeit at another University, I am madder than hell about this. When “everyone just knows” something the facts no longer matter. Everyone just knows how racist cops are. Everyone just knows about those rapist frat boys. And where did this journalist learn these “truths?” Why at journalism school from the same professors who taught the alleged accuser the same truths.
As hard tyranny expands, free inquiry contracts. To speak the truth at all is fast becoming a crime. During his filibuster, Ted Cruz recited much of The Federalist from memory. For this, the rats/media vilified him as a dangerous man.
"When their liberty perished, so did their learning." Cato's Letters No. 71.
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