Journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely Admits To Plagiarism, Faking Award-Winning College Story
After getting a "failed-all-basics" report card from Columbia Journalism School, Rolling Stone announced that its reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely would face the punishment of ... nothing. Nor would her editors. No suspension, no firing, not even a promise from her editors not to use Erdely"s work again.
Much of the magazine"s statement rested, obviously enough, on Erdely being gulled by a bad source who led her to write an elaborate tale about gang rape at a fraternity house at the University of Virginia that has since proven entirely false. The editors even pointed the finger in the accuser"s direction as they made their mea culpa. But they continue to protect the liar"s identity.
That"s fine and dandy, but it doesn"t mean the issue could be boiled down to a bad source.
Consider how other reporters, such as CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan, were treated when they got gulled by a bad source. After quoting a bad source in a 2013 story on Benghazi, Logan was raked over the coals by her editors, publicly suspended and then made a public apology. Her anonymous source, meanwhile, had his name exposed.
Which raises the question of the reasons for the discrepancy of the treatments.
We aren"t going to say that CBS necessarily has better journalistic standards than Rolling Stone, given the prestige of both organs in the journalism world. The more likely explanation is that Erdely"s blunder supported a narrative favored by the mainstream media that of predatory white frat boys out to rape women.
Logan"s story, on the other hand, was about Obama administration incompetence around the still-live issue of Benghazi, a topic that had already seen White House meddling into the news. One reporter got zero consequences. The other nearly got the boot.
We leave it to you to tell us that bias had no role here.
Source: http://news.investors.com/blogs-capital-hill/040615-746486-sabrina-rubin-erdely-and-lara-logan-a-tale-of-two-reporters-with-bad-sources.htm
