Rolling Stone Amends Rape Accuser Blame

Rolling Stone updated its initial statement regarding its now infamous University of Virginia article, placing the blame on its own publication rather than “Jackie,” the rape accuser featured prominently in it. The initial statement from managing editor Will Dana last week concluded that “our trust in her [Jackie] was misplaced.” The publication received flak for appearing to blame reporting mistakes on a rape accuser rather than its own staff. Rolling Stone did not announce the update to the new statement, which removes that line and instead clarifies that “mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.” The Sabrina Rubin Erdely article was called into question after some of Jackie's details could not be corroborated, including the fact that the man who allegedly orchestrated the brutal gang rape did not belong did the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity named in the article.