Here's why Rolling Stone's UVA rape story went viral | FACTUAL FEMINIST — Transcript

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1. 0:00the recent Rolling Stone story about a
2. 0:02gang rape at the University of Virginia
3. 0:04has all but Fallen apart but why was it
4. 0:06so easy for so many to believe that nine
5. 0:09unnamed male undergraduates were
6. 0:11sociopathic monsters well I think I
7. 0:14found out the answer that's coming up
8. 0:16next on the factual
9. 0:21feminist for several days many found it
10. 0:24plausible that on Friday night in the
11. 0:26fall of 2012 in Charlottesville Virginia
12. 0:30UVA fraternity members engaged in a
13. 0:32nightmarish ritualized three-hour gang
14. 0:35rape of one of their classmates and this
15. 0:38account in Rolling Stone included
16. 0:40sadistic details it the whole story was
17. 0:42reminiscent of Horrors of a a Bosnian or
18. 0:45congales rape camp in retrospect the
19. 0:49story should have aroused immediate
20. 0:51suspicion that it was instead widely
21. 0:53credited cries out for explanation well
22. 0:56here's mine since the 1970s many
23. 1:00academic feminists have claimed that
24. 1:02American women live in a state of Siege
25. 1:04constantly harassed humiliated and
26. 1:07battered by men rape they claim is not
27. 1:09only pervasive but it is supported and
28. 1:11sustained by cultural norms thus the
29. 1:14term rape culture well this Grim world
30. 1:17viiew has little currency outside
31. 1:19esoteric feminist circles until recently
32. 1:23public perception began to change around
33. 1:252010 and the term rape culture began to
34. 1:27find its way into the mainstream I'm
35. 1:30really really really furious at the
36. 1:32culture of rape and everywhere we heard
37. 1:35that 1if of college women will be
38. 1:37sexually assaulted it is estimated that
39. 1:40one in five women on college campuses
40. 1:43has been sexually assaulted during their
41. 1:45time there one in five well the college
42. 1:48rape epidemic meme went viral at the
43. 1:50same time that rates of violent crime
44. 1:52including rape were falling dramatically
45. 1:55and new data from the Bureau of Justice
46. 1:57statistics shows that the rate of rape
47. 2:00or sexual assault for college women
48. 2:02these rates are low and have been
49. 2:04dramatically
50. 2:06decreasing well what happened in 2010
51. 2:09that precipitated this media blitz well
52. 2:12that year the Center for Public
53. 2:14Integrity a left leing institution that
54. 2:16promotes socially conscious
55. 2:17investigative journalism they teamed up
56. 2:20with reporters at NPR to produce a
57. 2:22massive 104-page study describing a
58. 2:25hidden epidemic of rape on campus now
59. 2:30campus sexual assault is a genuine and
60. 2:32serious problem but this report made it
61. 2:35seem like the nation's colleges were
62. 2:37just overrun with rapists and that the
63. 2:40officials were codling them according to
64. 2:43the report not only were the vast
65. 2:44numbers of young women being raped by
66. 2:46their male classmates but when they
67. 2:48reported the crime to campus officials
68. 2:50they were
69. 2:51revictimized by counselors and Deans who
70. 2:54created a hostile environment for them
71. 2:57now the report is the worst kind of
72. 2:59advocacy research it's full of anecdotes
73. 3:02and misleading statistics it's
74. 3:04predicated on the claim that one in five
75. 3:06female students can expect to be a
76. 3:08victim of rape or attempted rape I mean
77. 3:10these investigative journalists never
78. 3:12thought to investigate what serious
79. 3:14researchers and criminologist have
80. 3:16exposed as a as a specious
81. 3:18statistic now the report included 33
82. 3:21women's personal stories of Campus rape
83. 3:24and they were sad and
84. 3:25disturbing but many of these stories
85. 3:28were classic he said she said cases that
86. 3:31are notoriously difficult to resolve
87. 3:33especially months after the event the
88. 3:36report deplores the fact that when women
89. 3:38make complaints they are faced with a
90. 3:40Litany of barriers but how can barriers
91. 3:44be avoided if someone is accusing
92. 3:46another person of a serious crime well
93. 3:49when the NPR public Integrity team
94. 3:51confronted the office of civil rights
95. 3:53with its findings of a rampant sexual
96. 3:56violence epidemic and and University it
97. 4:00this new person in charge russlyn Ali
98. 4:02assistant Secretary of Education she
99. 4:05promised action we will use all of the
100. 4:09tools at our disposal including
101. 4:12referring to Justice or withholding
102. 4:14federal funds to ensure that women are
103. 4:17free from sexual violence now the center
104. 4:20of public Integrity boasted about the
105. 4:22impact it was having in its fundraising
106. 4:24materials and secretary Ali made good on
107. 4:27her word on April 4th 20 2011 she sent
108. 4:31out her now famous dear colleague letter
109. 4:34to colleges Across the Nation providing
110. 4:36detailed guidelines and and new
111. 4:39Draconian steps that colleges should
112. 4:41have to take to fight what she called a
113. 4:43plague of sexual harassment and sexual
114. 4:45violence now her letter advised schools
115. 4:48to determine guilt by the lowest
116. 4:50standard of preponderance of evidence
117. 4:52and it instructed them to take measures
118. 4:54to minimize the burdens of complaintants
119. 4:57not a word about the rights of those
120. 4:59accused of terrible crimes well colleges
121. 5:02rushed to meet the new requirements
122. 5:04political leaders joined the fry and
123. 5:06there was suddenly a dizzying number of
124. 5:08sexual assault task forces listening
125. 5:10sessions toolkits commission reports
126. 5:13they quickly materialized and
127. 5:14universities revamped their disciplinary
128. 5:16committees and hired trauma counselors
129. 5:18and title line coordinators to cope with
130. 5:20this exploding number of rape survivors
131. 5:23and and perpetrators by
132. 5:252014 the one in5 statistic was
133. 5:28everywhere and campuses were in full
134. 5:30panic mode with calls for censorship and
135. 5:33Trigger warnings and a growing list of
136. 5:35young men facing harsh Justice in campus
137. 5:37kangaroo courts well a few Brave
138. 5:40Skeptics came forward and questioned the
139. 5:42whole thing but they were quickly
140. 5:43denounced as rape apologists George Will
141. 5:45for example he was summarily denounced
142. 5:48and even disinvited from a campus
143. 5:50appearance by the time the Rolling Stone
144. 5:52story appeared many saw it as horrific
145. 5:56but as a badly needed illustration of a
146. 5:58routine occurrence in the life in the
147. 6:01college rape culture except that it
148. 6:03didn't appear to be an illustration of
149. 6:04anything factual it was a male
150. 6:06demonizing Gothic fantasy nurtured by
151. 6:09several decades of Hardline feminist
152. 6:11Theory the writers and editors of
153. 6:13Rolling Stone are to blame for
154. 6:15publishing the story but it was NPR and
155. 6:19the Center for Public Integrity as well
156. 6:22as the office of civil rights who made
157. 6:24it all seem so
158. 6:26plausible well what did you think of the
159. 6:28Rolling Stone UVA gang rape story did
160. 6:31you initially believe it and do you know
161. 6:33anything about rape Panic on campuses if
162. 6:36you are on a campus are similar things
163. 6:38going on and um also I'd like just
164. 6:42suggestions on how what we can do to
165. 6:44prevent these sorts of cases from uh
166. 6:48false cases from coming up again we saw
167. 6:50it with the Duke lacrosse case and now
168. 6:51this uh well anyway please leave
169. 6:54comments subscribe to the series follow
170. 6:57me on Twitter or Facebook and thank you
171. 6:59for watching the factual feminist