Shame on Rolling Stone

Rape is a soul-shattering crime. It robs its victims of any sense of security… any sense of being whole.

Its victims are too often felt isolated with the blame. And, in year’s past, society echoed the sentiment.

“She was asking for it,” they’d charge based on the woman’s attire, behavior or any other movement.

It has taken society a long time to better understand that rape or violence against another person is among the worst crimes one human can perpetrate against another. It’s taken equally as long for society to accept that most victims will go to far lengths not to speak of the abuse.

That sexual abuse is likely occurring on any U.S. campus is not hard to believe. Team peer pressure, freedom, testosterone and estrogen in one place and you’re bound to get an unfortunate reaction. But Rolling Stone’s piece on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia was a disservice to the university, rape victims and journalism.

That reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely, no newcomer to the journalism game, opted to go along with the victim’s request that the perpetrators not be sought or interviewed for the piece, “A Rape on Campus,” was an injustice to all. As journalists, it is our job to fairly report both sides of the story. Standards of journalism demand that, as do our readers.