RICHMOND, Va. ― Days after Rolling Stone magazine published a shocking 9,000-word story about a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia in November 2014, the magazine’s editors received an email just before 2 a.m. with “Our worst nightmare” in the subject line. They needed to run a retraction, the reporter said.
Instead, Rolling Stone kept the article on its website for four months before finally pulling it down that April and officially retracting the story.
That decision was enough to convince a federal jury in Charlottesville on Friday that the magazine defamed a university administrator, who claimed she was cast as the “chief villain” in the now-discredited story “A Rape on Campus.”
The 10-person jury found also found that journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely and the magazine’s publisher were responsible for libel, with actual malice.
Nicole Eramo claimed the article falsely said she discouraged the woman identified only as “Jackie” from reporting the incident to police. A police investigation found no evidence to back up Jackie’s claims about being raped.
Eramo was seeking $7.5 million from her lawsuit. Jurors are expected to return to court next week to decide how much to award her.
The decision comes at a time when the public’s distrust of the press runs deep and is the latest in a year that brought large judgments against other media outlets.
