Apology We're STILL Waiting For

Another story that simply won't go away -- and shouldn't -- is the contemptible assault on journalistic standards known as the University of Virginia Made-Up Rape Story.  As you will recall, over a year ago, a story in the magazine "Rolling Stone" purported to give an account of a female student going to a fraternity party at the Phi Kappa Psi chapter house and being repeatedly raped.

Only one problem.  As the Charlottesville, VA police determined, the whole thing was made up, never happened, there was no party at the Phi Psi house that night, and the accuser turned out to be a serial liar.

Of course, before that turned out to be the case, as determined with just a little bit of due process, the Phi Psi house was picketed, vandalized and its members condemned, and the "ready, fire, aim" university president, Teresa Sullivan, shuttered all of the fraternities and sororities(!) on campus for a while.  I suppose in the spirit of total self-interest, I should point you toward some really, really good writing on the subject here, here and here.  Do take a moment and read them, please.

Now, of course, the aftermath remains.  People were injured, in the eye of the law, and while I'm usually quite frightened of torts, they can be interesting to write about.  As written in the Washington Post, one such tort is being claimed by Nicole Eramo, an administrator at the university.  She was portrayed in the Rolling Stone article as being less than supportive of "Jackie", the person claiming to have been the victim in this attack that never happened.

Mrs. Eramo is suing Rolling Stone for $7.5 million for the magazine's depiction of her as being "callous and indifferent" to the suffering of the, as it turned out, lying non-victim.  Of course, in the grand scheme of things, Mrs. Eramo's suffering is a bit down the line from the true victims, starting with the UVa chapter of Phi Kappa Psi and the fraternity system in general, at UVa and through North America.

That she is, however, not the most aggrieved party in this does not in any way mitigate my sympathy for her and support of her suit.  In fact, while the associate dean is suing Rolling Stone, I would encourage her to add this "Jackie" to the defendants' list, if she has not already.  And I hope that as soon as the justice system issues rulings that essentially gut Rolling Stone and give the proceeds to Phi Kappa Psi, there is a little left over for those such as Mrs. Eramo who were libeled by the magazine in their article.

Here is my point.  You now have an associate dean at the university suing the magazine for publishing a defaming characterization of her, her own defense corroborated by the police findings that no rape or assault ever occurred.

Where is the university president?  Where is her apology to Phi Kappa Psi for failing to defend them while the investigation was ongoing?  Where is her apology to the UVa fraternity system for throwing them under the bus while this was going on?  Where is her apology for aggressively coming down on one side of a case that turned out to be the wrong side, and shutting the system down -- including the sororities, if she can ever explain that -- without justification or rationale.

Liberals don't apologize; it would force them to admit to a crack in their orthodoxy.  I don't expect Teresa Sullivan to apologize for her own actions that facilitated more of the venom toward Phi Kappa Psi.  I don't expect that ever.

But I'd like to see it.  If I can hope to win the Powerball jackpot, I can at least hope for something else equally unlikely.

[Note: for the record, I am a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and not associated with any of the organizations at UVa which have been defamed, other than that my fraternity does have a chapter there that was closed with the others on campus.]

Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
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