Columbia Journalism School was charged with reviewing Rolling Stone’s botched story of rape at UVA and sources tell Dylan Byers of Politico that it doesn’t look good.

Review of Rolling Stone’s UVA rape story is long and damning

The highly anticipated review of Rolling Stone’s disputed story about a University of Virginia gang rape was submitted to the magazine this week, the On Media blog has learned, and its contents are apparently quite damning.

The review, which was submitted by Columbia Journalism School dean Steve Coll, is significantly longer than the original 9,000-word article, sources with knowledge of its contents said. They also said the review offered a blunt indictment of Rolling Stone’s reporting and its violation of journalism ethics. A significant portion of the review is slated to run in the magazine next month, they said.

The review was commissioned by Rolling Stone editor and publisher Jann Wenner in December, following criticism of a November story that opened with an account of the brutal gang rape of a UVA student identified only as “Jackie.”

The article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, did not reach out to the alleged assaulters prior to the article’s publication. The magazine has since issued a statement apologizing “to anyone who was affected by the story.”

Earlier this month, police in Charlottesville, the home of UVA, suspended their investigation into the alleged assault, stating that they “we’re not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident consistent with the facts contained in that article occurred.”