Roger Yu

USA TODAY

A minor journalistic oversight or a dicey case of a reporter jumping the gun?

What looked like a home-run investigative piece by Rolling Stone magazine about an alleged rape at the University of Virginia is being examined by media pundits for the holes in the story that may or may not have been deliberate.

On Nov. 19, the magazine ran a story of "Jackie," an unidentified U.Va. student who says she was gang-raped at a party at the house of Phi Kappa Psi in the fall of 2012. Her shocking story, with vivid details from the night of the incident, and its charges that sexual assaults at U.Va. often go unreported and are dealt with sluggish responses deeply embarrassed the university and set off a chain of events that will reverberate on campus for months, if not years.

Police at Charlottesville, Va., where the school is located, have begun investigating. The university, facing student protests, has launched its own investigation and suspended all Greek activities for the year.

But the 9,000-word story, written by writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely, has been put in a spotlight of its own by media critics, who acknowledge its impact but cite what they say are some reportorial shortcomings. The reaction has taken on a political bent as well, with some conservative critics, including Jonah Goldberg, questioning the authenticity of its facts.

Erdely couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday for this story.

In a statement, Rolling Stone said, "Through our extensive reporting and fact–checking, we found Jackie to be entirely credible and courageous and we are proud to have given her disturbing story the attention it deserves."

The most glaring hole, critics say, is Erdely's failure to mention in the story whether she attempted to contact "Drew," the unidentified U.Va. student who allegedly invited Jackie into the house and, along with other men, raped her.

Her subsequent responses in interviews with reporters muddied further what seems like a straight-forward journalistic issue.

In an interview with The Washington Post shortly after her story ran, Erdely declined to say whether she tried to contact Drew or whether she knows the names of Jackie's alleged attackers. She has a deal with Jackie to keep silent about those details, the report said.

Erdely later told Slate that she unsuccessfully "reached out to [the alleged attackers] in multiple ways." "They were kind of hard to get in touch with because [the fraternity's] contact page was pretty outdated," she said.

Sean Woods, an editor at Rolling Stone who edited the story, also told the Post that Erdely didn't talk to Drew or other men. "We verified their existence," Woods said. "I'm satisfied that these guys exist and are real. We knew who they were," he said.

Tim McGuire, former editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis who now teaches journalism ethics at Arizona State University, said he was "uncomfortable with the deal that was allegedly made" by Erdely with Jackie in reporting the story.

"That was a really bad deal," McGuire said, noting that the story makes clear that Drew had been sighted on campus and was not someone in flight or hiding. "They needed to call Drew and see his reaction. I am ethically discomfited by this story. I wanted some confrontation with the accused. Somebody's got to know who that is."

"The thing that is disappointing is when you have a story with such incredible power, you wish they'd really nailed it up," he said.

Still, her story clearly had a dramatic impact in the university community. Erdely insists the facts have been checked and corroborated and Rolling Stone lawyers signed off on the story. There has been no denial or call for retraction issued by the school or local law enforcement authorities. Their investigations will run their course. And the issue of campus sexual assaults has been heightened by the story.

Erdely seems to be responding to critics with her version of the "keep your eye on the big picture" note.

"The gang-rape scene that leads the story is the alarming account that Jackie — a person whom I found to be credible — told to me, told her friends, and importantly, what she told the UVA administration, which chose not to act on her allegations in any way — i.e., the overarching point of the article," Erdely wrote in an e-mail to the Post. "THAT is the story."