A couple years ago, a young woman named Jacqueline "Jackie" Coakley, then a student at the University of Virginia, embarrassed herself, her institution, UVa's president and Rolling Stone magazine. She did all of this by making up a fraternity gang-rape case with no basis in fact, which has since been shown to be a hoax, but back then, she brought it sobbingly to Rolling Stone, who obligingly wrote it as a factual story.
Along with the embarrassments Miss Coakley brought on, she brought damage as well. The story involved a never-happened gang rape at a UVa fraternity house (Phi Kappa Psi), leading to vandalism of the "Phi Psi" house and a crushing impact on their reputation, on campus and nationally.
Rolling Stone has now settled a $25 million lawsuit filed by the UVa chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, agreeing to pay the chapter $1.65 million to dismiss the lawsuit. The Phi Psis went along with the lower-figure settlement for whatever reason, but I'm not all that crazy about the fact that they settled.
I mean, I'm happy that the Phi Psis are getting $1.65 million, even if they have committed for unknown reasons to use some of the money to fund rape awareness outreach efforts, whatever that is. It is nice of them, and a decent cause, but it is absurd if it were part of the settlement, that the victims of the crying-wolf syndrome end up funding the cause that Rolling Stone was trying to promote with execrable journalistic integrity.
Ironically, Phi Kappa Psi would then have ended up doing way more for rape prevention than Rolling Stone ever could.
But ... I would have liked to have seen the penalty have been for a lot larger. There is nothing wrong with the $25 million Phi Kappa Psi asked for, and I'm sure their headquarters could perhaps have upped the safety level of a lot of its chapter houses with that.
There is always a two-sided coin in these things -- compensating the injured party and punishing the guilty. For example, medical malpractice settlements over $10 million or so seem absurd to me. Doctors can't pay them, and the amount is absurdly beyond what the alleged victim could possibly use. In this case, it's not clear what the actual UVa Phi Psi chapter could have ever done with $25 million, although scholarships for brothers or a chapter house fund as a building loan source to other Phi Psi houses would be reasonable.
In addition, Rolling Stone needed to be punished in a big way, and I don't know that $1.65 million is a reasonable punch in the face given what they did -- you see, for me it was an abuse of power, the power of the First Amendment. I hope they also have to pay the Phi Psis' attorneys and I'm sure their own cost a bundle.
But for me, the biggest thing is that Jackie Coakley (now married and a McGovern), got away scot-free. I am not aware of a single lawsuit she has to defend, and for God's sake, the Washington Post won't even publish her name even though she was shown to have lied through her teeth. Hint: it's "Coakley."
Why is she getting away with it? With all the aggrieved parties in this, and that's before we mention the UVa dean who also ended up settling with Rolling Stone, someone needs to hold her responsible and accountable for what he did.
Gee, I'm sure Elizabeth Warren could comment. Come on, Pocahontas, do you think Jackie Coakley McGovern ought to get sued?
Copyright 2017 by Robert Sutton
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