Yes, Virginia, there was no rape in your campus - that in essence was the content of the Rolling Stone magazine's apology on Sunday night which also serves as its retraction of the fabricated rape story by a female University of Virginia (UVA) student in the hands of fraternity boys.

Like Us on Facebook

Jackie claimed she was raped by seven fraternity men. However, after four months of police investigation, the cops could not find any evidence that the sexual molestation ever took place, while the alleged victim did not cooperate in the investigation.

Will Dana, managing editor of Rolling Stone, wrote on its website, "We would like to apologize to our readers and to all of those who were damaged by our story and the ensuing fallout, including members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and UVA administrators and students," quotes the AP.

Dana acknowledged that sexual assault is a serious campus problem and victims must feel comfortable stepping forward. He said the magazine's failure could affect their willingness to do so.

The magazine apologized following its receipt of a report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism on the Rolling Stone's editorial process. It described the article as a "story of journalistic failure that was avoidable."

Writer Sabrina Erdely also apologized and admitted not going far enough to verify Jackie's story.

However, while the article was a failure, it still pointed to the ongoing problem of campus rapes since UVA is on the list of 55 universities under investigation by the Department of Education for the way it handles sex assault violations.

As a result of the article, UVA President Teresa Sullivan issued a temporary suspension of fraternity and sorority social events. In turn, fraternities eventually agreed to prohibit kegs, employ security personnel and ensure at least three sober fraternity members at every event.

Meanwhile, the fraternity said the Rolling Stone article defamed it. The group said it is studying its legal options.

Stephen Scipione, president of Phi Kappa Psi's UVA chapter, said, "These false accusations have been extremely damaging to our entire organization, but we can only begin to imagine the setback this must have dealt to survivors of sexual assault."

TagsUniversity of Virginia, Rape, Rolling Stone