Vox Sentences: How Rolling Stone got UVA so wrong

1. "Journalism about a failure of journalism"

Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana, with Shakira. (Theo Wargo/WireImage for Epic Records)

• Rolling Stone has officially retracted "A Rape on Campus," a feature in the December 2014 issue that described an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• The Charlottesville Police Department has found no evidence that the rape described in the article actually occurred.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• The retraction follows the release of a 12,000-word report by Columbia School of Journalism professors Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll, and Derek Kravitz detailing the failures of reporting, editing, and fact-checking that led to the article's printing.

  [Rolling Stone / Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll, and Derek Kravitz]

• The report found that the article's author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, relied almost entirely on the word of Jackie, the alleged victim, and failed to do basic reporting (such as checking if the fraternity at which the rape allegedly occurred even had a party the night in question) that would have unraveled Jackie's story.

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• Per the report: "In hindsight, the most consequential decision Rolling Stone made was to accept that Erdely had not contacted the three friends who spoke with Jackie on the night she said she was raped."

  [Rolling Stone / Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll, and Derek Kravitz]

• Rolling Stone has decided not to fire any staff members due to the story, and has said that Erdely will continue to write for the magazine.

  [CNN / Brian Stelter and Sara Ganim]

• In the report, the magazine's editors claimed their error was placing too much trust in Jackie. The story's editor, Sean Woods: "Ultimately, we were too deferential to our rape victim."

  [Rolling Stone / Sheila Coronel, Steve Coll, and Derek Kravitz]

• Michelle Goldberg: the magazine's effectively throwing Jackie under the bus, and we still don't know if she was a victim of some kind of crime (just not the one described in the article).

  [The Nation / Michelle Goldberg]

• Erik Wemple: journalism's cardinal sins are usually thought to be plagiarism and fabulism, but those produce way fewer victims than this failure did.

  [Washington Post / Erik Wemple]

• Libby Nelson: Rolling Stone's response to the report is appalling, "the verbal equivalent of a shrug."

  [Vox / Libby Nelson]

• The UVA chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, where Jackie alleged the assault had taken place, has announced that it's filing a lawsuit against Rolling Stone.

  [Washington Post / T. Rees Shapiro]

• False rape allegations are rare; past studies have concluded that only about 2 to 10 percent of reports are false.

  [Vox / Jenée Desmond-Harris]

2. Iran, the week after

Israeli minister of intelligence and strategic affairs Yuval Steinitz, who presented the list of changes, with Prime Minister Netanyahu. (Pool/Getty Images)

• The Israeli government has listed a number of conditions that it says must be met by a final nuclear deal with Iran.

  [NYT / Isabel Kershner]

• They include shipping enriched uranium out of Iran, and the closing of Fordow, an underground nuclear facility in Iran, as an enrichment site.

• Under the preliminary deal the US and the EU reached with Iran, Fordow would suspend enrichment and greatly reduce its number of centrifuges, but it'd still be allowed to have centrifuges.

  [NYT / William Broad]

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously stated that Iranian recognition of Israel's right to exist was a necessary precondition to any deal.

  [NYT / Jodi Rudoren]

• President Obama has rejected that idea, saying, "The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms."

  [Reuters / Jeff Mason]

• Saudi Arabia, Iran's principal regional rival, has issued a tentative endorsement of the preliminary deal.

  [Politico / Adam Lerner]

• A large group of foreign policy experts, including former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and former Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker, has issued a letter in support of the deal.

  [The Iran Project]

3. Meanwhile, in Yemen

Yemeni mourners attend the funeral of award-winning journalist Abdul Karim al-Khiwani, who had become top official of the Shia Houthi militia, on March 24, 2015, in the capital Sanaa. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP/Getty Images)

• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group's Yemen affiliate, seized control of Al Mukalla, the country's fifth largest city, over the weekend.

  [NYT / Saeed al-Batati and Kareem Fahim]

• The move comes as the country's civil war — between the Shia Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government of Rabbu Mansour Hadi — is heating up, with Hadi's forces claiming they're making gains in the south.

  [Reuters / Mohammed Mukhashaf]

• A US citizen, Jamal al-Labani, was reportedly killed in the city of Aden as the two factions battled over it.

  [Slate / Ben Mathis-Lilley]

• That has sparked calls from Arab-American and Muslim-American groups for the US to conduct an evacuation of citizens from Yemen.

  [Council on American-Islamic Relations]

• UNICEF is warning that the country is on the verge of humanitarian disaster, with tens of thousands of people already displaced.

  [Reuters / Dominic Evans]

• The US is backing Saudi Arabia's intervention on Hadi's behalf; many regional experts think the intervention is destined to be a costly quagmire that destabilizes Yemen as well as Saudi Arabia itself.

  [Brookings Institution / Kenneth Pollack]

• Need more background on Yemen? Check out Zack Beauchamp's great explainer.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

4. Misc.

• Running a fake celebrity Twitter account turns out to be a not-bad way to make money.

  [Flavorwire / Jason Bailey]

• Mark Landis is one of the most prolific art forgers ever, but because he donates his forgeries, he committed no crime and was never prosecuted.

  [BBC / Jason Caffrey]

• Stavros Papamarinopoulos is "the world’s most respected Atlantis expert." And he thinks the city might have been real.

  [Slate / Mark Adams]

• Jonah Hill, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Segel — just about every nerdy comedy actor you can think of, Allison Jones discovered.

  [New Yorker / Stephen Rodrick]

5. Verbatim

• "'They sting, and they're scary!' a child yelled in response, to the president of the United States."

  [President Obama via Vox / Andrew Prokop]

• "In defending himself, Mr. [Jeb] Bush, who has described himself as 'my own man' on foreign policy, pointed out that his brother had a strong record of support for Israel, one attendee said."

  [NYT / Nicholas Confessore and Maggie Haberman]

• "Move over, banana: The eggplant has risen to become America’s dominant phallic fruit."

  [Slate / Amanda Hess]

• "The world would be a better place if we were as tough-minded in how we donate money as in how we make it."

  [NYT / Nicholas Kristof]

• "The hated-­upon must resist lines of inquiry, like 'Haters are inclined to hate, but perhaps I have contributed to this situation somehow by frustrating that natural impulse in all human beings, that of empathy, however submerged that impulse is in this deadened, modern world.'"

  [NYT / Colson Whitehead]

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