Washington Post: Studenten berichten über Folgen ihrer Verleumdung in den Medien

Nachdem inzwischen auch die Ermittlungsbehörden feststellten, dass die im Rolling Stone verbreiteten Vergewaltigungsvorwürfe gegen die Studentenverbindung Phi Kappa Psi jeglicher Grundlage entbehren, erklären die verleumdeten Studenten nun in der Washington Post, welche Folgen diese Lügen für sie hatten. Ein Auszug:

"We knew that the Rolling Stone story was not true," said David Fontenot, 22, a senior from McLean, Va. But they also knew "that we would only make things more difficult by fighting it in the media and that our best move was to stay quiet, let the police do their jobs and ride it out until the time was appropriate."

Phi Psi members, speaking publicly for the first time since the allegations surfaced, told The Washington Post that they went into hiding for weeks after their home was vandalized with spray-painted messages calling them rapists and with bricks thrown through windows. They booked hotel rooms to avoid the swarm of protesters on their front lawn. They watched as their brotherhood was vilified, coming to symbolize the worst episode of collegiate sexual violence against women since the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal — which also turned out to be false.

"That leads back to the bigger problem in that our society tends to rush to judge without the facts," Scipione said. "They just see the headline and get upset, and they want to blame it on someone, and obviously we were the easiest targets for that."

Entgegen der Ansicht, die offenbar vier Darmstädter Sprachwissenschaftler hegen, benötigen wir kein schwächeres, sondern ein stärkeres Bewusstsein dafür, dass Journalisten nicht immer die Wahrheit sagen.

Zur Debatte um die "Lügenpresse" äußerten sich in den letzten Tagen auch Michael Klein, Stefan Niggemeier und Gregor Keuschnig.