Writer Sabrina Erdely, Rolling Stone article, Administrator Nicole Eramo
Rolling Stone magazine has been found liable (guilty) in a defamation lawsuit which claims nearly eight million dollars in damages. A jury will decide Monday just how much of that money the publisher will have to pay. The plaintiff is an administrator at the University of Virginia who sued over the magazine’s infamous “A Rape on Campus” story. Nicole Eramo was portrayed as a cover-up agent for the university in a largely unchecked story written by Sabrina Erdely. In it, a woman named “Jackie” tells a story which could not be substantiated and, it was found, could not have happened. The court found that writer Erdely bore malice toward Ms. Eramo. This is an essential finding for success in a libel action against the media in the U.S. American journalists must be shown to know that what they are writing is not true. In Canada, libel law requires merely that the writer be wrong, even if he/she believed what was written or broadcast was true. Reuters