Rolling Stone magazine printed serious criminal accusations against a campus group, accusations the periodical now admits are completely false. Despite all of this, both the articleâ??s author and the magazine editor will keep their jobs according to the publisher. This matters, and matters to far more people than just those on the campus of the University of Virginia or even to the target demographic of Rolling Stone. Behind this scandal is a larger point. In our society, itâ??s become acceptable to lie about people and ideas, as long as the crisis created is in line with a perceived social good.
In the Rolling Stone case, as in others, the inaccuracies of the story are mitigated in some peopleâ??s minds, it seems, by the fact that stories like this create awareness about real problems. Is there a problem with sexual assault on college campuses? Yes. Stories like this, then, become less about demonstrations of such a problem than as fictional illustrations of the problem. The lie isnâ??t good, one might say, but, hey, letâ??s look at the bigger picture: a rape culture that needs confronting.
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