A controversial, conservative right wing blogger today published what he says is the name of the “girl” in Rolling Stone’s controversial UVA gang rape story – and then fundraises off it.
Editor’s note: There’s no image at the top of the page because frankly, there’s no image that accurately reflects the extreme of this story.
In journalism, there are some lines that should not be crossed.Â
Today, conservative blogger Charles C. Johnson, who runs the site GotNews.com, published the full name of the woman he claims is the subject of a Rolling Stone story about gang rape at the University of Virginia.
The facts in that story are now in dispute, and Rolling Stone has issued a statement detailing and acknowledging discrepancies in its story. Those discrepancies however do not mean that the subject in the story, which Rolling Stone identified only as “Jackie,” was lying about being raped, or was not telling the truth about the most important issues of the story. It does not mean the rape did not happen – nor will we litigate that on these pages now, and nor are we in a position to.
Johnson, however, saw fit to publish the name of the person he claims is “Jackie.” We will not publish that name here, nor will we link to his site or story.
In typical self-aggrandizing-and-victim-shaming form, this is the title of his piece: “BREAKING: GotNews.com Found Name of Rape #UVAHoax ‘Jackie.'”
Also included in Johnson’s article is a photo allegedly of “Jackie,” and even the names of her brothers, linking to a recent family obituary. He also published the city and state where she allegedly lives or is from.
“Multiple sources are confirming to GotNews.com,” he writes, that [we will not publish her name] is the girl who was the Rolling Stone reporter’s source.”
Notice he calls her a “girl.”
Johnson is also fundraising off the publication of her alleged identity, in a tweet with the victim’s name.
Little Green Footballs, which has been reporting on Charles C. Johnson’s antics for a while now, writes that Johnson is “threatening” the woman identified as “Jackie.”
LGF posts this tweet of Johnson’s:
And adds:
That’s not journalism — it’s extortion. It’s a clear violation of Twitter’s rules to post this kind of information, and reckless endangerment to boot. And we should point out that it has not been proven that “Jackie’s†story was false; Chuck is posting the name of a woman who may very well be a rape victim (if he even has the right person at all).
Jezebel notes that the “only purpose releasing her name could possibly serve is justifying the already prominent and twisted desire to doggedly discredit victims of sexual assault. It only encourages those who define sexual assault as ‘crying rape.'”
Most importantly, publishing the real name is fucking dangerous. If Johnson is correct, he has put a young woman who has already been subjected to hatred and threats at even more risk.
And if he is not correct? Just as dangerous.
Needless to say, social media is rightly furious about this.
Even those on the right aren’t happy.
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