Rolling Stone Blasted by UVA Dean: ‘Too Little, Too Late’

Nicole Eramo pens open letter to magazine publisher, hires attorney

University of Virginia’s Assistant Dean of Students slammed Rolling Stone in an open letter Wednesday, saying the magazine “deeply damaged me both personally and professionally.”

“Using me as the personification of a heartless administration, the Rolling Stone article attacked my life’s work,” Nicole Eramo wrote in an open letter to publisher Jann Wenner.

Eramo, who was depicted in the piece as being unresponsive to accuser “Jackie’s” rape claims, added the magazine’s actions are “too little, too late.”

She’s hired an attorney with the firm Clare Locke, Virginia-based practice that specializes in defamation, according to The Washington Post.

In her letter, Eramo recounts receiving death and rape threats after Rolling Stone’s story was published. She also takes the story’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, to task for failing to provide context about all she and her team had done in the past to combat sexual assault on campus.

“Ms. Erdely squandered an opportunity to have a more nuanced and accurate conversation about this issue because she was busy filling in her preconceived narrative and ultimately setting back the cause of advocacy and support in ways that we are still only beginning to understand here in Charlottesville and across the country,” she wrote.

“Inflamed by the false portrayal in the article, protestors showed up at my office, demanding I be fired. Perhaps most egregious and shocking were the e-mails that I received expressing hope that I be killed or raped, and commenting that they hoped that I had a daughter so that she could be raped.”

Columbia Journalism School’s review of “A Rape on Campus,” released earlier this month, was a scathing takedown of the story, finding “institutional failure” at the magazine and pointing blame at Managing Editor Will Dana, story editor Sean Woods and Rubin Erdely.

In a statement to TheWrap, a representative from Rolling Stone said, “We sincerely regret any pain we caused Dean Nicole Eramo and others affected by this story.”

To date, Wenner has not fired anyone involved with the article.

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