Rolling Stone's Research

Recently there have been a few articles and people who are ruining the progress of sexual assault cases. The most recent of these has been the Rolling Stones Magazine. A woman known only as Jackie told in an interview to one of the Stone's reports that she was sexually assaulted by a gang of men at a fraternity house party.  I want to note at this point I do not have an opinion on the actuality of the assault. I will talk more about that later. 




The issue that I see is how the Rolling Stones conducted the research process. The original article was published on November 19th 2014 titled "Rape on Campus". My thoughts and opinions are in line with an opinion that was posted by the Washington Post a month after the Stones article. I am mostly worried about editors and their role. 




An editor for at lest a newspaper is to be the filter for the journalists. They make assignments, check the work to be sure it is fair, and accurate, and make headlines. On December 5th the editor Will Dana issued a statement about the article and admitted they did not contact the alleged accused out of respect of Jackie’s request. As an editor I would want to know the other sides argument.

The letter from editor Dana came about because another news source fact-checked them. That news source was the Washington Post. They went out and check some of the stories and found facts that dispute some aspects of Jackie’s story.

I think this is neglect on the Rolling Stones part. The amount of women that do not report sexual assault or rape is troubling to say the lest. Over half of rape cases are not reported to police. As a said before I don’t know whether or not Jackie was assaulted or not. From reading the story and than the other facts that were uncovered I feel that a step has been taken backwards in helping those affected by such assaults.

The NFL has recently seen these affects. They are now stepping up and making the situation known and providing the resources to make things change. There is also a backlog of rape kits that they are two years behind. The Rolling Stone’s neglect has added another brick in the barrier from people wanting to come out and share their story.

In conclusion I agree with Amanda Bennett form the Washington Post and that is Editor Dana should resign and the industry do a self check and get back to reporting the news rather than forwarding an agenda.

Reference List

Amanda Bennett, (December 19^th 2014). Rolling Stone editor Will Dana’s failures have cost everyone involved. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rolling-stone-editor-will-danas-failures-have-cost-everyone-involved/2014/12/19/e7f2bbd0-86e0-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html

Sabrina Rubin Erdley, (November 19, 2014). Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA. Retrieved from: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/a-rape-on-campus-20141119

Education Portal. Retrieve from: http://education-portal.com/articles/Newspaper_Editors_Job_Duties_and_Information_About_Becoming_a_Newspaper_Editor.html

Will Dana, (December 5, 2014) A Note to Our Readers. Retrieved from: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/a-note-to-our-readers-20141205

RAINN Retrieved from: https://www.rainn.org/statistics