Sabrina Rubin Erdely to speak Sunday night on CNN as Columbia University journalism school review of A Rape on Campus is due for publication

Rolling Stone walks back UVA rape story over 'discrepancies' in student's account Read more

The author of a Rolling Stone report on an alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house was expected to break months of silence on Sunday night with an apology for inaccuracies in the story, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.



Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a Rolling Stone contributing editor whose story A Rape on Campus prompted national outrage and calls for reform after it was published in November, stopped speaking publicly after other news organizations revealed holes in the story.

At the center of Erdely’s piece was the story of an alleged victim called Jackie, a freshman who said she was raped by seven people at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in 2012.

Jackie’s story was challenged by the fraternity, which said there was no event at the house on the night of the alleged rape and that descriptions in the Rolling Stone story did not match any of its membership. It was later revealed that Erdely had never spoken with the alleged perpetrators of the rape, out of deference to Jackie, and police found no evidence of the rape.

Inconsistencies in Jackie's story do not mean that she wasn't raped at UVA | Jessica Valenti Read more

As doubts about the story grew, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner asked Columbia University’s journalism school to review it. Columbia’s report was scheduled to be published on Sunday evening at 8pm ET.

The report would diagnose “systemic” failure at Rolling Stone in publishing the story, Stelter reported. The magazine planned to take down the story and replace it with Columbia’s report, Stelter said.

Prior to Sunday evening, the story was posted on Rolling Stone’s website under a long note from managing editor Will Dana, which said in part: “Given all of these reports, however, we have come to the conclusion that we were mistaken in honoring Jackie’s request to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account.”