# Rolling Stone article, and at what point writers should be fired **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981 "2015-04-06T19:19:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/61 "2016-11-08T15:49:01Z")
So what happens next? Rolling Stone pays up and Erderly files bankruptcy? Or do they do appeals? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/62 "2016-11-08T19:21:41Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > I linked one up thread, but if you look at her body of work, it’s pretty damn clear that this wasn’t her first made up story. Yeah, I read one about a soldier that was allegedly drugged and raped and shit on by the service which I’m rather skeptical of, now. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/63 "2016-11-08T20:06:04Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So what happens next? Rolling Stone pays up and Erderly files bankruptcy? Or do they do appeals? I may be wrong, but I don’t think bankruptcy covers damages awarded in a lawsuit. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/64 "2016-11-08T20:31:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > So what happens next? Rolling Stone pays up and Erderly files bankruptcy? Or do they do appeals? I saw on CNN that Rolling Stone will cover Erderly’s damages. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/65 "2016-11-08T21:06:34Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I will say that the Rolling Stone article is much, much worse. Brian Williams did lie, but the nature of the lie - that he was a witness to something that really did happen - is not dangerous beyond the fact that journalists lying is bad. > > Sabrina Erdley might not technically have lied, but she negligently pointed fingers at a group of innocent men and told the world they were rapists. Hers was a call to action, and a call to action on false pretenses is a dangerous thing. You only need to look to the Iraq War to see that. Or the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. People zero in on a problem and look for a martyr and end up with the wrong martyr. There is a problem with on campus sexual assault (perhaps not fraternity gang rapes, but that is where zealotry takes you). But when you lie about it and get caught, people breathe a sigh of relief and say “whew,” it was all just a hoax, there is no sexual assault problem on college campuses. There is a problem with racism in the St Louis area. I was there for a couple of weeks about ten years ago and the problem was so glaringly obvious to me that I felt uncomfortable, and I am not the most sensitive person in the world. But when you pick a martyr like Michael Brown, all of a sudden the protesters look like malcontented bellyachers just looking for trouble. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981/66 "2016-11-08T21:41:13Z")
This is even worse than it looks for Rolling Stone, because the judge in this case (wrongly, completely wrongly, in my opinion) stated that Dean Eramo was to be treated as a public figure. That should have made this case a slam dunk for Erdely and Wenner. But it wasn’t, because in this case, malice was obvious! Sabrina Erdely loathed the South, white males, and fraternities long before she heard the story of “Jackie.” And it showed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rolling-stone-article-and-at-what-point-writers-should-be-fired/716981.md?page=3)