《滾石》雜誌因性侵報道陷入尷尬

Started nearly a half-century ago as a chronicle of 1960s counterculture, Rolling Stone established its journalistic credibility with provocative coverage of politics and current affairs.

《滾石》雜誌此次面臨的信任危機，暴露出媒體報道強姦等暴力題材時在事實覈查方面的疏漏。哥倫比亞大學新聞與創傷中心的專家表示，更多記者應該接受關於如何採訪受過心理創傷的人的培訓，以保護他們自己和信息提供者。

While its cover remains coveted real estate for those looking to assert their pop-culture bona fides, writers like Matt Taibbi and Michael Hastings have influenced public perceptions in recent years on issues like the financial crisis and the war in Afghanistan — in the same way that celebrated predecessors like Richard Ben Cramer and Tom Wolfe had done in previous years.

從上世紀六十年代對反正統文化的記錄開始，在近半個世紀的時間裏，《滾石》雜誌因爲對政治和當下事件所做的爭議性報道，從而建立起新聞公信力。雖然能上它的封面依舊是那些希望展現自己在潮流文化中佔有一席之地的人垂涎不已的事情，但近些年來，馬特·塔伊比(Matt Taibbi )和邁克爾·黑斯廷斯(Michael Hastings)這樣的作者對公衆在金融危機和阿富汗戰爭方面的看法，產生了很大的影響，繼承了那些聲名卓著的前輩，比如理查德·克拉默(Richard Ben Cramer)和湯姆·沃爾夫(Tom Wolfe)當年的風範。

The magazine seemed to have struck again last month with a vivid account of a young woman who said she was gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity party, a story that helped drive the national debate over the problem of sexual assault on college campuses.

上個月，這本雜誌因爲某年輕女子稱自己在弗吉尼亞大學的兄弟會派對上遭到輪姦的生動描述而又火了一把，這篇報道推動了大學校園性侵犯問題的全國性討論。

But late last week Rolling Stone found itself facing a crisis that threatened its reputation as a place for serious, significant journalism. Faced with reporting in The Washington Post that appeared to undermine crucial details of the accuser’s account, and a rebuttal of some aspects from the fraternity, the magazine published a note to readers on Friday saying that it had reservations about the article. It also acknowledged that it had erred in relying solely on the word of the accuser, named only as Jackie, and in agreeing not to try to contact the men she accused.

但上週晚些時候，《滾石》雜誌卻發現自己陷入了一場威脅到它作爲一本嚴肅、重要雜誌聲譽的危機中。之前，《華盛頓郵報》的報道動搖了那位指控者敘述中的一些關鍵細節，兄弟會的一些當事人也作出了反駁，鑑於此，該雜誌在上週五發表了一封致讀者信，聲稱對那篇文章的態度有所保留。它還承認不應該對那位指控者——單名傑姬的女子——的說辭偏聽偏信，不應該同意放棄接觸那些她所指控的男性。

“I have serious questions about what happened, and I am at this point not ready to say what happened that night,” the magazine’s managing editor, Will Dana, said in an interview Friday. “There should never be a story in Rolling Stone where I feel that way.”

“對於真相我有着高度的懷疑，此刻我也不準備說那天晚上究竟發生了什麼，”該雜誌的執行主編威爾·戴納(Will Dana)在週五的一個採訪中說道。“我有那種感覺的報道，就不應該出現在《滾石》雜誌上。”

With that, Rolling Stone found itself listed among a series of media crises in recent weeks, including The New Republic, where there were mass resignations, and First Look Media, the start-up that lost staff members and canceled a planned website after a dispute between journalists and managers.

因爲這起事件，《滾石》雜誌陷入了最近幾周來的一系列媒體危機之中，其他還有《新共和》(The New Republic)雜誌的員工大規模辭職風波，先睹傳媒(First Look Media)這家初創企業在記者與管理層之間出現爭議後，員工離職，原計劃上線的網站也取消了。

Rolling Stone was harshly criticized by media critics for its journalistic lapses, and by women’s groups who said it set back the cause of encouraging sexual assault victims to come forward.

媒體評論人士對《滾石》雜誌的新聞失檢之舉發起了猛烈的批評，而女權組織則聲稱，鼓勵性侵受害者站出來的目標也因這件事受損。

Even the magazine’s apology seemed to backfire. The note to readers initially said that Rolling Stone’s trust in Jackie was “misplaced” — which some read as criticizing Jackie and undermining her story. This weekend, as it faced further criticism for that characterization, it quietly changed the note to say that it was “mistaken in honoring Jackie’s request to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account.” It also said, “These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.”

甚至連雜誌的道歉似乎也造成了適得其反的效果。在致讀者信的最初版本寫道，《滾石》對傑姬的信任“給錯了對象”——在有些人看來，這是對傑姬的批評，對她的經歷的不信任。在過去的這個週末，由於對文字的批評來得愈加猛烈，雜誌方面不聲不響地對致讀者信進行了改動，稱“錯誤地信守了傑姬提出的不要與性侵嫌疑人進行接觸的請求”。信中還說，“這些錯誤都由《滾石》雜誌承擔，不怪傑姬。”

In a post on Twitter, Mr. Taibbi said he, like others at the magazine, was “both mortified and sorry — for the public, for anyone affected, and for the source herself.”

在Twitter上的一篇推文中，塔伊比表示，自己與辦公室的其他同事“都感到羞愧和抱歉——無論是對公衆、對於因此事受到牽連的人，還是消息的提供者。”

Jann Wenner, a founder of Rolling Stone and its publisher, declined repeatedly to be interviewed, or to offer any comment. But in the interview Friday, Mr. Dana said the article stemmed from a feeling he and other senior editors had over summer that the issue of unpunished campus rapes would make a compelling and important story.

《滾石》雜誌出版人、創始人之一詹恩·溫納(Jann Wenner)反覆拒絕了採訪和評論請求。但在週五的採訪中，戴納說，之所以有這篇文章，是因爲他和其他高級編輯們在整個夏天都有的一個感覺，即逃脫懲罰的校園強姦案問題，可以拿來做一篇有意思的重要報道。

They decided to assign Sabrina Rubin Erdely, a contributing editor who has also written for GQ and The New Yorker, and who has been nominated for two National Magazine awards, according to her website. Ms. Erdely did not return calls and messages seeking comment. But she has said publicly that she sought out the right story, on the right campus, and that she found what she was looking for in Jackie.

他們決定任命薩布里娜·魯賓·厄德利(Sabrina Rubin Erdely)來寫這篇報道，根據她的個人網站提供的信息，作爲一名特約撰稿人，她還給《GQ》和《紐約客》雜誌撰稿，並且曾獲得兩次國家雜誌獎(National Magazine award)的提名。厄德利女士沒有回覆關於評論請求的電話和短信。但她曾經公開表達過，自己在尋找發生在合適校園裏的合適故事，後來她在傑姬身上找到了自己要找的東西。

The accuser appeared to be distressed, perhaps as a result of her trauma, according to a person familiar with the newsroom’s process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe sensitive events. She had repeatedly asked Ms. Erdely that those she accused of raping her not be contacted. When the magazine brought up the issue again later, she threatened to withdraw from the story.

據一位熟悉該編輯部流程的人士表示（因爲話題敏感，此人要求匿名），指控者或許是因爲受到精神創傷的緣故，顯得非常痛苦。她反覆要求厄德利女士不要接觸那些她指控強姦她的人。在雜誌後來再次提出這個問題的時候，她威脅要退出報道。

That concern, combined with a feeling that it should err on the side of sensitivity, persuaded the magazine to accept her wishes. “Sabrina had talked to quite a few other women who had said, ‘If you talk to me, you can’t go talk to my attacker,’ ” Mr. Dana said, and so it seemed like a reasonable request.

出於此種擔憂，加之體恤對方的感受，雜誌接受了她的要求。“薩布里娜採訪了不少強姦案的受害者，她們都說過‘你要跟我談，就不要跟施害者去談’的話，”戴納說道，所以這似乎也是一個合情合理的請求。

“These are hard stories to do,” said Bruce Shapiro, executive director of Columbia University’s Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, which focuses on the issues of reporting on violence and conflict. An engaged and empathetic reporter, he said, will naturally be concerned about potentially inflicting new trauma on the victim of a harrowing incident. “I do think that when the emotional valence of a story is this high, you really have to verify it.”

“這些報道很不好做，”哥倫比亞大學新聞與創傷中心（Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma，簡稱達德中心）的執行董事、關注暴力和衝突報道議題的布魯斯·夏皮羅(Bruce Shapiro)說道。他指出，一名有同情心的全身心投入的記者，自然會關注痛苦的事情對受害者的心靈造成新創傷的可能性。“我也認爲，當一篇報道的情感誘發力如此之高的時候，你真的得核清事實。”

Experienced reporters on the topic, he said, often only work with women who feel strong enough to deal with the due diligence required to bring the article to publication.

他說，報道該主題的資深記者們通常只與足夠堅強的女人合作，她們要能應對文章發表所需的審慎調查。

The details of a heartbreaking conversation recounted in the story, in which Jackie tells her friends of her rape and is told that she should stay quiet, also came only from Jackie, Mr. Dana said. One of the friends declined to comment, and Ms. Erdely could not reach the others.

戴納說，故事中提到的一個細節——傑姬告訴她的朋友們她被強姦了，朋友們告訴她應該保持沉默——也只是傑姬一人所述。其中一個朋友拒絕做出評論，厄德利女士無法與其他幾個朋友取得聯繫。

The magazine faces some potential legal liability, said Eugene Volokh, a University of California, Los Angeles, law professor who also writes for The Washington Post. “Based on the facts as I have read about them in the media,” he said, “I would not have approved the publication of a story that names a fraternity, when there hadn’t been a call to the alleged rapists.”

加州大學洛杉磯分校的法律教授、也爲《華盛頓郵報》撰稿的尤金·沃洛克(Eugene Volokh)表示，該雜誌可能面臨一些潛在的法律責任。“根據我在媒體上讀到的一些事實，”他說，“我不會同意發表這樣一個故事——它只提到一個大學聯誼會，而沒有致電被指控的強姦者。”

Ms. Erdely delivered a manuscript in September. When he first read it, Mr. Dana said, “I thought, ‘Are you sure?’ ” But he, other editors and fact-checkers felt that Jackie was credible, and the magazine’s lawyers had no problems with it, so the magazine ran it. After publication, Jackie seemed pleased, too, Mr. Dana said.

9月份，厄德利提交了報道的草稿。戴納讀完就說，“我在想，‘你確定嗎？’”但是他和其他編輯以及事實覈查者感覺傑姬是可信的，該雜誌的律師們也沒有對文章提出異議，所以文章就發表了。戴納說，文章發表後，傑姬似乎也感到滿意。

But others wrote that they had problems with the article, and with the magazine’s decision not to seek out the men accused. Mr. Dana said that, despite the barrage of criticism, Rolling Stone had not suspected that anything might be significantly wrong until late last week. The magazine said on Sunday that it had not identified specific problems in the article beyond the questions that had already been made public, but said it is investigating further.

但是有人寫信來說，他們認爲這篇文章有問題，認爲該雜誌決定不找出那些被指控的男人是不妥當的。戴納說，儘管遭到很多批評，但是《滾石》直到上週末才懷疑可能真的出現了重大錯誤。週日，該雜誌稱，除了已公佈的那些問題，該雜誌尚未找出文中的具體問題，但是說它正在做進一步調查。

It is not clear what consequences Ms. Erdely and the article’s editor will face, if any, Mr. Dana said, and he has not made any specific decisions.

還不清楚厄德利和這篇文章的編輯會面臨什麼樣的結果，如果有的話——戴納表示，他尚未做出任何具體決定。

Mr. Shapiro, of the Dart Center, said the issue of corroboration in accounts of rape and other trauma is a common one. He says that more reporters should be trained in interviewing traumatized people, to protect both themselves and their sources.

達德中心的夏皮羅說，強姦等心理創傷的事實覈查問題十分常見。他說，更多記者應該接受關於如何採訪受過心理創傷的人的培訓，以保護他們自己和信息提供者。

“It would be really unfortunate if the controversy around the sourcing of this story were to distract from the core and critical issue of sexual assault on college campuses,” he said, an issue with which Mr. Dana said he agreed.

“如果圍繞故事來源的爭議把人們的注意力從大學校園性侵犯這個重要的核心問題上轉移走，那就太糟糕了，”他說。戴納表示，他同意這個觀點。

Mr. Dana said the magazine planned to do further reporting on the story, as it tries to determine the truth of what happened at the University of Virginia and rebuild its own journalistic reputation.

戴納說，該雜誌計劃進一步報道這個故事，努力弄清弗吉尼亞大學事件的真相，重建自己的新聞聲譽。

“Right now,” he said, “we’re picking up the pieces.”

“目前，”他說，“我們正在恢復正常。”