Rolling Stone backs off from U.Va. rape story

Rolling Stone magazine said Friday that it found discrepancies in its controversial story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia and had lost faith in the piece, a shocking retreat coming merely days after author Sabrina Rubin Erdely defended the reporting.

"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," Will Dana, the magazine's managing editor, wrote on its website.

"We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account," the post said. "We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story."

On Nov. 19, the magazine ran a story of "Jackie," an unidentified UVA. student who says she was gang-raped at a party at the house of Phi Kappa Psi in the fall of 2012. Her shocking story with vivid details from the night of the incident and its charges that sexual assaults at U.Va. often go unreported deeply embarrassed the university and launched an investigation by school officials and local police. All Greek life activities were also suspended in the wake of the story.

Soon after the 9,000-word story ran, media critics began to question Erdely's reportorial methods. According to Rolling Stone, she spent months talking to Jackie, her friends and university officials. But Erdely never spoke to the accused, "Drew" and other men at Phi Kappa Psi.

Erdely didn't contact the men for comments due to an agreement with Jackie, Dana said. "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," he wrote.

"We have no knowledge of these alleged acts being committed at our house or by our members," according to a statement released Friday by the university chapter of Phi Kappa Psi. "Our initial doubts as to the accuracy of the article have only been strengthened as alumni and undergraduate members have delved deeper."

Erdely's story said Drew was a lifeguard at the time of the attack in the fall of 2012. But the fraternity said it couldn't find a record of a member who worked at the aquatic center in 2012. "As far as we have determined, no member of our fraternity worked there in any capacity during this time period," its statement said.

Jackie claimed that she was raped by the men at a party at the fraternity house that took place four weeks into the school year. But the chapter said it didn't have a social event or a date function during the weekend of Sept. 28, 2012.

"Our Chapter's pledging and initiation periods, as required by the University and Inter-Fraternity Council, take place solely in the spring semester and not in the fall semester," the fraternity's statement said. "We document the initiation of new members at the end of each spring. Moreover, no ritualized sexual assault is part of our pledging or initiation process. This notion is vile, and we vehemently refute this claim."