Rolling Stone is still suffering the consequences of having failed to follow standard journalistic practices in its publication of a sensational, and ultimately discredited, story about “a rape on campus” that never happened. But this week, one legal component of that fallout finally came to an end, with the magazine reaching a confidential settlement with the former associate dean smeared in the now fully retracted story.
After the November 2014 story unraveled, former University of Virginia associate dean Nicole Eramo sued Rolling Stone and the story’s author Sabrina Rubin Erdely for defamation of character. Erdely, Eramo’s lawyers argued, allowed her desire to write a sensational story about the so-called “rape culture” on college campuses override basic journalistic practices and ethics. Despite glaring inconsistencies in the rape claims of the supposed victim, “Jackie,” the magazine published her fabricated account. Eramo was cast by Erdely as a “chief villain” of the story, the embodiment of a heartless administration willing to cover up rape to protect the good name of the institution.
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