The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

UVA Dean Files $7.5 Million Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone Over Rape Hoax

Posted on | May 12, 2015 | 51 Comments

Making the liars pay for fake journalism:

A University of Virginia associate dean of students filed a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine Tuesday, alleging that it portrayed her as callous and indifferent to allegations of sexual assault on campus and made her the university’s “chief villain” in a now-debunked article about a fraternity gang rape.
Nicole Eramo is seeking more than $7.5 million in damages from Rolling Stone; its parent company, Wenner Media; and Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the investigative journalist who wrote the explosive account of sexual assault on the campus in Charlottesville. The magazine retracted the article after news organizations and the Columbia University journalism school found serious flaws in it.

The entire complaint is online. Via Memeorandum, with more blog commentary from Reason Magazine, Legal In·surrection, Ed Driscoll, Moe Lane, and The PJ Tatler.

 

Category: Crime, Education, Media Bias

Comments

51 Responses to “UVA Dean Files $7.5 Million Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone Over Rape Hoax”

  1. concern00
    May 12th, 2015 @ 10:02 pm

    I’m a big fan of consequences.

  2. Matt_SE
    May 12th, 2015 @ 10:30 pm

    It makes sense to go after the deep pockets for money. It makes sense to go after institutions because they should’ve been the most responsible actors.
    I just wish someone would get around to the perpetrators. Some of this mattress-carrying nonsense needs to be chilled.

  3. Daniel Freeman
    May 12th, 2015 @ 11:36 pm

    I would agree, but when I try to picture someone suing an apparently mentally-ill young woman, who is already practiced at lying and playing the victim for sympathy, it’s hard to imagine that going well.

  4. Steve Skubinna
    May 12th, 2015 @ 11:49 pm

    You’re right about the optics. But ask why this apparently mentally disturbed young woman is permitted, encouraged even, to remain on campus harassing and slandering an innocent man?

    She should have been quietly expelled.

  5. concern00
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:19 am

    Bring back institutionalization! Electric shock therapy should work wonders.

  6. Steve Skubinna
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:23 am

    Used to be we simply ignored deranged people until they posed a threat. Now they get Twitter accounts, publishing contracts and jobs with MSNBC.

  7. Passerby
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:37 am

    > associate dean of students filed a … lawsuit against Rolling Stone

    So, this is basically the Mensheviks suing the Bolsheviks.

  8. Daniel Freeman
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:44 am

    It’s not just the optics, it’s also the shameless lying with “cluster B” personalities. University deans are not Columbo or Stacy. They’re not investigators. Determining facts in the face of competing claims is not a core competency.

  9. Lockstein13
    May 13th, 2015 @ 1:45 am

    Is this Dean, by chance, the same one who backed up the RS article by wrongly punishing the fraternity?!? THAT Dean needs to be thrown to the curb.

  10. Daniel Freeman
    May 13th, 2015 @ 2:04 am

    No, I think you’re thinking of the UVA President, Teresa Sullivan, whose contract is up for a vote on the 19th.

  11. Fail Burton
    May 13th, 2015 @ 3:02 am

    This pushback was inevitable. We still have laws in America and feminism’s transparent attempt to set up a parallel system of laws via an inquisition and kangaroo courts which sees the world through the most severe meaning of “sexism” was bound to fail. It’s one thing to block someone on Twitter and another to actually destroy lives because you have this secret knowledge of how the patriarchy works. In fact that secret knowledge verges on outright paranoia and sociopathy. Who in their right mind attacks an ad with a woman in a bikini? What kind of shared mass hysteria works people up to such a pitch? The answer is an echo chamber where ideas are censored along with pedantic definitions of how censorship is only gov’t, etc. These people are too crazy to run their own lives let alone a society.

  12. Fail Burton
    May 13th, 2015 @ 3:04 am

    Trust me, this is only the first of many against Rolling Stone. And UVA will have its own and also individuals there who violated the civil rights of other individuals. This new feminist fad is going to be pricey.

  13. robertstacymccain
    May 13th, 2015 @ 5:32 am

    As Insty observed, Jackie will likely be deposed during the discovery process, which should be very enlightening.

  14. Fail Burton
    May 13th, 2015 @ 6:30 am

    Can she use a dating service where she tries to find a man born without any sense of danger?

    “Don’t walk in front of that bus, honey. It’s dangerous.”

    “Really?”

    “Yup. Let’s go home. I’m making Hi-Lex soup tonight.”

  15. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 6:38 am

    Not a bad analogy.

  16. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 6:39 am

    I like the version using a field telephone generator.

  17. texlovera
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:09 am

    If there is any justice, the fraternity members who were wrongly defamed, accused and punished by the school will be getting 10 times that payout.

  18. Art Deco
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:19 am

    I’m wondering if this was triggered by Rolling Stone‘s declaration that they will continue at their discretion to use Erdley’s services. The arrogance and negligence in that deserves punishment. This is the publication which makes use of Matt Taibbi to cover the financial sector. Justice would be total destruction.

  19. Rolling Stone and Sabrina Rubin Erdely sued by UVA over false rape hoax… | Batshit Crazy News
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:32 am

    […] TOM: Sued for fake journalism… […]

  20. Dana
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:46 am

    I am amused.

  21. Dana
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:49 am

    Which is why colleges need to set a no exceptions policy: all claims of rape or sexual assault or whatever will be turned over to te police, because only law enforcement professionals are inclined, trained and equipped to handle such complaints. If the alleged victims choose, at that point, to drop their complaints, the colleges should include such choices in their statistics, because you just know the feds will intervene.

  22. Dana
    May 13th, 2015 @ 7:51 am

    Their discretion may now be to choose to use her zero times. Their lawyers and insurance companies will insist.

  23. Squid Hunt
    May 13th, 2015 @ 10:15 am

    It’s the start of the university’s legal defense. A calculated move. They bet on the Rolling Stone article being good PR and it blew up in their face. Now they’re in damage control mode.

  24. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 10:46 am

    You could have just left it at “Determining facts” period.

  25. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 10:56 am

    How could they possibly think a rape article could be good PR? If they thought that, they’re dumber than RS and Erdely combined.

  26. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 11:00 am

    BWAHAHAHAHA! I’m having a bad day today, and this incident really cheered me up. Not that I enjoy the misery of others, but at the thought of justice rightly done. For a change.

  27. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:01 pm

    The literal translation of schadenfreude is “bad, or evil joy.” Still, the temptation to engage in it can be overwhelming for a reasonable person.

  28. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:04 pm

    I remember Taibbi from the internet rag “Exile.” I read his column a couple times and realized the man is an idiot and ignored him thereafter. he might be qualified to cover the operation of the local wastewater treatment plant, and I would e question that, but he certainly is utterly unqualified for anything else.

    The destruction of Rolling Stone would aid the country greatly. Not quite so much as the destruction of the NYT, or the 3 network’s news divisions, but still a great help.

  29. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:04 pm

    The insurance companies would have the most influence.

  30. Quartermaster
    May 13th, 2015 @ 12:06 pm

    Still, it smells of CYA. the Dean is almost certain to lose as public official proving defamation is an extremely high wall, and with no hand holds, to climb

  31. Recap: Hillary’s Explains ‘Hard Choices’ | Regular Right Guy
    May 13th, 2015 @ 1:15 pm

    […] UVA Dean Files $7.5 Million Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone Over Rape Hoax […]

  32. concern00
    May 13th, 2015 @ 2:08 pm

    Yes I’ve had the good fortune to play that game.

  33. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    May 13th, 2015 @ 3:15 pm

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bNytK7sXQ9Q/VVLMh3ce56I/AAAAAAAAujQ/ufhgdxNtywM/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-05-12%2Bat%2B9.00.13%2BPM.png

  34. ISH @ Mininerd
    May 13th, 2015 @ 3:55 pm

    Why hasn’t anyone released the actual name of “Jackie”? I understand the reasoning behind ‘rape shield’ ethics in journalism, but even HuffPo and Salon now acknowledge the Rolling Stone article as a fraud. “Jackie” isn’t the victim, she’s one of the perpetrators.

  35. Dianna Deeley
    May 13th, 2015 @ 6:23 pm

    Good for her! I hope she gets every penny!

  36. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 9:57 pm

    I have to battle with my sin nature every day, QM. The best I can hope for is to win more times than not, LOL.

  37. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 9:59 pm

    Or every 5th or 6th penny, or however many pennies her lawyer has allocated her…

  38. DeadMessenger
    May 13th, 2015 @ 10:02 pm

    If I’m going to be thinking anyway, I like to think big. Therefore, I’d like to see the entirety of the 3 networks self-destruct, not just the news divisions. 😀

  39. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:30 am

    If by enlightening you mean, cringe worthy, excruciating, and laden with schadenfreude, yes.

  40. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:31 am

    On which end of the wires?

  41. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:33 am

    Hey, I’m down with watching some hot Blue-on-Blue action. It’s been a long time coming, and it looks as if the left is reaching the point where its own internal contradictions tear it apart.

    Short of a meteor strike on NYC I can’t imagine a more enjoyable spectacle.

  42. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:34 am

    “…because you have this secret knowledge of how the patriarchy works..”

    I have long considered progressivism to be a modern day gnostic cult.

  43. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:36 am

    I’m betting they kept Erdley on board because she’d be more dangerous on the outside. They’re circling the wagons and this particular loose cannon would be more threatening to them outside pointed in.

  44. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:37 am

    Oh no, only a bad person would delight in the misfortunes of others, and none of us here are bad people.

    Heh heh.

  45. concern00
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:38 am

    Both – I’m very talented!

  46. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:40 am

    “Freude, schoner Gotterfunken. Tochter aus Elysium…”

    The lovely, lovely Ludwig Van…

  47. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 1:40 am

    Wait until she gets deposed.

  48. Steve Skubinna
    May 14th, 2015 @ 6:47 am

    Both sides simultaneously, unless I miss my guess.

  49. Rick Caird
    May 14th, 2015 @ 10:05 am

    I hope this gets some results.

  50. Quartermaster
    May 14th, 2015 @ 11:38 am

    Ode to Joy? It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen the German lyrics.