I thought this was an interesting case in relation to standards of journalism. But I guess that journalists can still report any 'rubbish' brought as allegations without stating an alternative view, sadly. In terms of naming of any staff who may have worked at MJJP or MJJV, I guess as long as the names are in the allegations, the press and media can still publish the details of civil 'complaints' with no fear of being sued by the people so named....
Rolling Stone Loses Defamation Case Over Rape Article
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A jury on Friday found Rolling Stone magazine liable in a defamation suit brought by a former dean at the University of Virginia involving a discredited 2014 article about a supposed gang rape at the university.
The suit was brought by Nicole P. Eramo, a former associate dean of students at the university, who said the Rolling Stone article depicted her as the “chief villain” of the story.
The jury found liability on the part of Rolling Stone; its parent company, Wenner Media; and the author of the article, Sabrina Rubin Erdely. Lawyers for Ms. Eramo argued that Rolling Stone and Ms. Erdely were reckless in their reporting and editing and that Ms. Erdely deliberately avoided following leads that could have disproved the story.
Ms. Eramo slumped into the arms of her lawyer, Libby Locke, as the clerk read the verdicts.
The 9,000-word article, titled “A Rape on Campus,” was published in November 2014 and helped start a national conversation about sexual assaults on campuses. But details of the article relied heavily on a single source, identified only as Jackie, who said she had been the victim of a gang rape at a fraternity party.
Rolling Stone soon commissioned a review of the article by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. The school’s report, released in April 2015, found that the magazine had failed to engage in “basic, even routine journalistic practice” to verify details Jackie had told it. The magazine then retracted the story.
The jury found that assertions made within the article, as well as post-publication comments and news releases by Rolling Stone, were defamatory.
In a pretrial ruling, the judge determined that Ms. Eramo was a public figure. That ruling sets off the “actual malice” standard, which requires a plaintiff who is a public figure to prove that the publisher knew it had published falsehoods or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity.
After the verdict, Rolling Stone released a statement that said in part: “In our desire to present this complicated issue from the perspective of a survivor, we overlooked reporting paths and made journalistic mistakes that we are committed to never making again. We deeply regret these missteps and sincerely apologize to anyone hurt by them, including Ms. Eramo.”
This was the first of two lawsuits that Rolling Stone faces over the article. The second, filed in a Virginia state court by the fraternity that was portrayed as the setting for the supposed rape, seeks $25 million in damages and has not yet gone to trial.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/05/business/media/rolling-stone-rape-story-case-guilty.html?_r=0