Quite a few folks enjoyed this section of the Morning Jolt today:

The Rolling Stone University of Virginia Story Explodes
Gentlemen, start your lawyers.
In their first interviews about the events of that September 2012 night, the three friends separately told The Post that their recollections of the encounter diverge from how Rolling Stone portrayed the incident in a story about Jackie’s alleged gang rape at a U-Va. fraternity. The interviews also provide a richer account of Jackie’s interactions immediately after the alleged attack, and suggest that the friends are skeptical of her account.
“Diverge” is a gentle word, considering the circumstances:
They said there are mounting inconsistencies with the original narrative in the magazine. The students also expressed suspicions about Jackie’s allegations from that night. They said the name she provided as that of her date did not match anyone at the university, and U-Va. officials confirmed to The Post that no one by that name has attended the school.
Since Friday, the question on lots of minds has been whether the account of the victim in Rolling Stone was a gross exaggeration of a genuine but less dramatic traumatic event or a wholesale hoax.
Here’s where things get really problematic for our victim:
And photographs that were texted to one of the friends showing her date that night actually were pictures depicting one of Jackie’s high-school classmates in Northern Virginia. That man, now a junior at a university in another state, confirmed that the photographs are of him and said he barely knew Jackie and hasn’t been to Charlottesville for at least six years.
Here’s where things get really, really problematic for Rolling Stone:
The friends said they never were contacted or interviewed by the pop culture magazine’s reporters or editors. Though vilified in the article as coldly indifferent to Jackie’s ordeal, the students said they cared deeply about their friend’s well-being and safety. Randall said that they made every effort to help Jackie that night.
How in the name of Tawana Brawley can Rolling Stone quote people without contacting them?
Shattered Glass is a pretty good film depicting the real-life tale of The New Republic’s serial fabulist, Stephen Glass. Adam Penenberg, the reporter who ultimately exposed the lies, lays out the twists and turns of the investigation in a great personal essay here. There’s a moment during Penenberg’s first confrontation with Glass, in front of both men’s editors, where it becomes clear that Glass’s story cannot possibly be true. Penenberg whispers, “The guy is toast.”
We’re now in “the guy is toast” territory for Rolling Stone.
Here’s where Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely may be getting into Stephen Glass/Jayson Blair territory:
The Rolling Stone article also said that Randall declined to be interviewed, “citing his loyalty to his own frat.” He told The Post that he never was contacted by Rolling Stone and would have agreed to an interview. The article’s writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, did not respond to requests for comment this week.
We have now veered past shoddy journalism to writing things that didn’t happen. The only scenario in which Erdely isn’t putting words in people’s mouths is if the victim — do we refer to her as an alleged victim now? — sent e-mails on behalf of Randall and her friends, i.e., an elaborate hoax that involves impersonating other people.
Here’s the one piece of evidence contending the victim’s story is not made up out of whole cloth:
“She had very clearly just experienced a horrific trauma,” Randall said. “I had never seen anybody acting like she was on that night before and I really hope I never have to again. . . . If she was acting on the night of Sept. 28, 2012, then she deserves an Oscar.”
By the way, here’s the University president, Teresa Sullivan:
On Greek life, Sullivan said she is working “collaboratively” with fraternity leaders. “The students have brought forward some great ideas,” she said. But she said a suspension of social activities would remain in place until Jan. 9.
One extremely dubious allegation in a national magazine prompted the suspension of all Greek activities for the semester. They’re teaching those kids a lesson — unfortunately it’s a lesson about collective punishment and modern academia’s increasing lack of interest in the rights of the accused.
Ace observes: “It’s an interesting, and I’m sure entirely unrelated, quirk of history that Sabrina Rubin Erdley was a colleague of Steven Glass’ on the Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper. Both were UPenn, Class of ’94.”