Phi Kappa Psi, the UVA fraternity named in the now-thoroughly debunked Rolling Stone article "A Rape on Campus" is suing the magazine for $25 million. The magazine piece alleged, among many other things, that gang rape was part of the normal Phi Kappa Psi initiation process.
After the piece was published, it became clear that basic journalistic ethics were violated, and details in the story that were not confirmed to be true were reported as such. Two investigations found that there was zero evidence of the crime described in the story actually happened.
From the Washington Post:
“The fraternity chapter and its student and alumni members suffered extreme damage to their reputations in the aftermath of the article’s publication and continue to suffer despite the ultimate unraveling of the story,” the Phi Psi chapter said in a statement Monday. “The article also subjected the student members and their families to danger and immense stress while jeopardizing the future existence of the chapter.”
Rolling Stone retracted the story in April, and the magazine’s editor, Will Dana, later resigned.
The fraternity is not the only entity suing Rolling Stone over the piece. Three individual members of Phi Kappa Psi, who have since graduated from UVA, filed a federal lawsuit against the magazine, and an associate dean of the school who was named in the story filed a $7.5 million federal lawsuit in May.
Looks like Erick Erickson may have been a tad prophetic:
Congrats to Phi Kappa Psi for your acquisition of Rolling Stone.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 5, 2014
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