It would be hard to believe that the words “Rolling Stone” didn’t pop up in the Salon offices at some point today. As Twitchy reported, an associate dean of students at the University of Virginia recently filed a multi-million lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine, which she says attempted to portray her as a villain in its now-debunked story, “A Rape on Campus.”
That lawsuit came just weeks after a Columbia University senior filed suit against the school, alleging that Columbia did nothing to protect his reputation after both school and law enforcement authorities rejected the case of the student who accused him of rape.
Paul Nungesser claims that a website owned by Columbia has presented as fact that he had sexually assaulted onetime friend Emma Sulkowicz, a senior majoring in visual arts who has drawn worldwide publicity to her case via the “Mattress Project,” in which she carries a mattress around campus for college credit as part of her senior thesis.
Emma Sulkowicz took her mattress up to the stage to lots of applause at #ccclassday2015 pic.twitter.com/1hTviv7UsU
— Teo Armus (@teoarmus) May 19, 2015
Emma Sulkowicz did not shake hands with President Lee Bollinger when she went on stage at #ccclassday2015 pic.twitter.com/y7bbKj3iCp
— Teo Armus (@teoarmus) May 19, 2015
Sulkowicz insisted she’d bring her mattress to her graduation ceremony, which she did, inspiring this headline and article in Salon.
Hey @Salon: Change that headline and apologize imm… or you'll be paying millions to #PaulNungesser for defamation. pic.twitter.com/0aYsTVKekJ
— A.J. Delgado (@AJDelgado13) May 19, 2015
Salon did indeed change the headline, adding the word “alleged.”
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/600737162338926592
@lachlan @Salon
And, is it even fair to use "alleged" after both the Univ and police said, " uh… no."— Jim (@Ifitsthisname) May 19, 2015
@AJDelgado13 @Salon Guess we're going to ignore all that evidence stuff.
— Zaggs (@Zaggs) May 19, 2015
https://twitter.com/shaner38/status/600703263449620481
@AJDelgado13 @robbysoave @Salon Astonishing.
— Taylor Nezbit (@TayNez81) May 19, 2015
Good question:
Aren't there exceptions for that kinda thing for parody sites like Salon? @AJDelgado13 @Salon
— Antonio Martinez (@djtechchicago) May 19, 2015
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