Campus rape has been and continues to be a serious problem in this country despite some relatively good news from the Department of Justice around incidents being on the decline (down 58 percent between 1995 and 2010 – the most updated numbers available). Still, that doesn’t include the many incidents that go unreported. Others are merely qualified as “attempted”. In other words, there’s still a long way to go despite the progress.
That said… it is profoundly disturbing to see one major publication and one actress/author exploit this subject in the irresponsible manner witnessed this week in the form of Rolling Stone’s UVA rape “exclusive” and Lena Dunham via her memoir, Not That Kind of Girl. You’ve likely heard the story around the former by now: Rolling Stone breathlessly reported on a gang rape of a woman named “Jackie” at a fraternity at the University of Virginia in graphic detail. But the story-which got major play by many media outlets and cable news-unraveled after many holes are found in it. Consequently, Rolling Stone retracted this rather large portion of it after initially blaming its source instead of its ownsloppiness from the reporter herself (the now-MIA Sabrina Rubin Erdely) to scores of fact-checkers back in New York.
So instead of a spotlight and conversation being cast on ways to further decrease the number of rapes and sexual assaults across the country, the spotlight now shines on anything but that. Which brings us next to Dunham’s book. Here’s the breakdown on what has transpired here:
Read the rest of the story at Mediaite.