Rolling Stone Backs Away From Bombshell UVA Rape Story, Apologizes

Rolling Stone Magazine has apologized to its readers after it was revealed that a bombshell expose the magazine published about a horrifying rape at the University of Virginia may not be true.

In a statement posted by Rolling Stone, the magazine's managing editor, Will Dana said, "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."

Jackie is the name of the woman who claims that she was gang raped by seven men at a University of Virginia fraternity called Phi Kappa Psi at a party Sept. 28, 2012.  The Washington Post reports that the fraternity did not actually have a party on that night.

The Post also says that no member of the fraternity worked at the school's Aquatic Fitness Center during the timeframe in question. Jackie told Rolling Stone that she met her attacker while working at the center. She says he invited her on a date to the party where she was then raped.

The Post also reports that no member of the fraternity at that time matched the physical description Jackie provided to Rolling Stone. Normally, journalists reach out to the accused in situations like this, but Rolling Stone did not.

Rolling Stone attempted to justify this omission by saying, "Because of the sensitive nature of Jackie's story, we decided to honor her request not to contact the man she claimed orchestrated the attack on her nor any of the men she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her. In the months Erdely spent reporting the story, Jackie neither said nor did anything that made Erdely, or Rolling Stone's editors and fact-checkers, question Jackie's credibility."

The Post says that even her best friends and fellow rape activists began to doubt Jackie's story after the article was published. This is because she told them the name of one of her attackers and they soon discovered that man was never a member of the fraternity where she claims she was raped.