Penn alum at center of Rolling Stone controversy

Philadelphia-based writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a 1994 College graduate, is at the center of a reporting controversy over her recent Rolling Stone article, “A Rape On Campus,” which tells the gang-rape story of a student identified as “Jackie” at a University of Virginia fraternity party.

As several media reports criticized Erdely for failing to reach out to Jackie’s alleged attackers , Phi Kappa Psi — the fraternity named in the article as the place where Jackie’s rape occurred — released a statement citing discrepancies in the story, including that the fraternity held “no date function or social event” on the night of the alleged assault. As the Charlottesville police formally investigate the article’s allegations, Jackie firmly stands by what she told Erdely.

On Friday, Rolling Stone backed away from the article in a statement addressing factual inconsistencies in Jackie’s account.

“We published the article with the firm belief that it was accurate,” Rolling Stone editor Will Dana wrote in the statement. “Given all of these reports, however, we have come to the conclusion that we were mistaken in honoring Jackie’s request to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account.”

Dana declined to comment beyond his previous public statements and Erdely did not respond to requests for an interview.

Though facts from her reporting have been called into question, former colleagues believe Erdely has the credentials and experience to back up her reputation as a respectable journalist. A two-time National Magazine Award nominee and past Penn lecturer, Erdely has written four books, and her work has appeared in several distinguished publications, including The New Yorker and GQ.

As an undergraduate at Penn, Erdely developed her passion for magazine writing while working at 34th Street, and served as its Managing Editor in 1993. She frequently returns to campus, recently speaking at the Kelly Writer’s House in September.

Erdely has become known for “taking on very tough and sensitive stories,” said Penn professor and author Stephen Fried, who has known Erdely for 20 years after working as her colleague and editor at Philadelphia Magazine. “I have always known her to be a writer and reporter of great intelligence and integrity.”

“She has a strong track record and is a very thorough and careful reporter who doesn’t cut corners,” said Eliot Kaplan, vice president of talent acquisition at Hearst Magazines who hired Erdely at Philadelphia Magazine in 1994. Kaplan is married to a member of the DP’s Board of Directors.

As many continue to attack Erdely’s decision to honor Jackie’s privacy, Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, discussed the difficult decisions and negotiations required in source-reporter relations.

“It would be a good thing to provide this victim with as much protection as possible, but it would also be a good thing to give the people who were accused of a terrible crime an opportunity to hear those accusations and respond to them,” Clark said. “But these two good things conflict against one another so it’s an ethical gray area.”

Before Jackie’s account came into question, Erdely’s article sparked international conversations about sexual violence and what institutions should be doing to stop it. But since Erdely focused on one case to convey the general culture of sexual violence, some say flaws in Jackie’s story may undermine the overall discussion that the article set in motion.

“[Sexual assault on campus] is one of those larger issues where it’s very hard to depend on individual cases,” Clark said. “There is a tremendous amount of reporting that has to be done that instead focuses on what institutions are doing with this issue.”

Even if Jackie’s story is flawed, the facts about campus sexual assault do not change: One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college, and only 12 percent of assaults are reported.

“Victims of sexual violence are susceptible to memory loss and inconsistent notions of the details because trauma is so real and pervasive,” Joanna Kamhi, director of Penn’s student group Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention. “Even if some of the minor details were incorrect, I do not doubt for a second that Jackie was raped, and I only hope that this case doesn’t become a reason to not believe survivors when they speak out about their experiences.”

“When a story fails, it hurts the cause, but it doesn’t destroy it,” Clark said. “This is not an issue that is going to go away — in fact, it’s going to have even more attention on it.”

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