The article in Rolling Stone about the supposed gang rape at a fraternity party two years ago at the University of Virginia is being revealed as a hoax. To be fair, "hoax" is presently too strong a word to use, but it is certainly true that the story is now closer to phony than true.
I wrote about this story when it was first released but focused on the reaction of the university administration. The school used the excuse of the article to ban all fraternities from campus. In other words, the University of Virginia punished hundreds of students, half of whom were not even student at the university when the supposed crime took place, because of the acts of others. It was liberal "justice" at its worst, protecting "victims" from "oppressors" no matter what had happened.
Since I posted about the university's action, there have been a spate of articles that consider the content of the story, the allegations of gang rape at a fraternity party. These articles point out that no names are mentioned in the article; everyone, both victim and perpetrators are nameless. They also point out that the supposed witnesses whose statements are repeated are also nameless. They add that the reporter did not try to speak to the perpetrators to get their side of the story, a cardinal sin for reporters. Then we hear that the author of the story now says that she does not know if it is true. On top of this, we have the implausible story line that multiple friends of the supposed victim told her not to go to the authorities because they all might stop being invited to fraternity parties in the future. How many college women would tell their friend who was gang raped not to go to the police because they might not get party invites in the future? There are a whole host of other flaws in the story, but I will let you read the articles which are easy to find.
So here's the question: if the story is falling apart, will the university take back its action banning fraternities. It is hardly an earth shaking matter, but it is important nevertheless. We have a liberal university establishment jumping in on the basis of unsupported allegations in a magazine to punish behavior that is perfectly legal but which they don't like on political grounds. The university finally got an excuse to end that male dominated remnant of the "oppression of women", the fraternity system. Now that the excuse is being revealed as a fantasy, will the university back down and "allow" the fraternities to continue? Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Remember the Duke lacrosse team? When the false allegations of rape were first made against a few members of that team, nearly one hundred Duke professors signed a full page ad denouncing the students for their mistreatment of women. When the allegations of rape were shown to be completely false, those same professors whose liberal biases led them to join in the ad, never apologized or even rescinded their comments.
I wrote about this story when it was first released but focused on the reaction of the university administration. The school used the excuse of the article to ban all fraternities from campus. In other words, the University of Virginia punished hundreds of students, half of whom were not even student at the university when the supposed crime took place, because of the acts of others. It was liberal "justice" at its worst, protecting "victims" from "oppressors" no matter what had happened.
Since I posted about the university's action, there have been a spate of articles that consider the content of the story, the allegations of gang rape at a fraternity party. These articles point out that no names are mentioned in the article; everyone, both victim and perpetrators are nameless. They also point out that the supposed witnesses whose statements are repeated are also nameless. They add that the reporter did not try to speak to the perpetrators to get their side of the story, a cardinal sin for reporters. Then we hear that the author of the story now says that she does not know if it is true. On top of this, we have the implausible story line that multiple friends of the supposed victim told her not to go to the authorities because they all might stop being invited to fraternity parties in the future. How many college women would tell their friend who was gang raped not to go to the police because they might not get party invites in the future? There are a whole host of other flaws in the story, but I will let you read the articles which are easy to find.
So here's the question: if the story is falling apart, will the university take back its action banning fraternities. It is hardly an earth shaking matter, but it is important nevertheless. We have a liberal university establishment jumping in on the basis of unsupported allegations in a magazine to punish behavior that is perfectly legal but which they don't like on political grounds. The university finally got an excuse to end that male dominated remnant of the "oppression of women", the fraternity system. Now that the excuse is being revealed as a fantasy, will the university back down and "allow" the fraternities to continue? Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
Remember the Duke lacrosse team? When the false allegations of rape were first made against a few members of that team, nearly one hundred Duke professors signed a full page ad denouncing the students for their mistreatment of women. When the allegations of rape were shown to be completely false, those same professors whose liberal biases led them to join in the ad, never apologized or even rescinded their comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment