In December, after questions about the story’s veracity, Rolling Stone apologised for “discrepancies” in the account and admitted that it never sought comment from seven men accused of the alleged rape.
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Three former members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia filed a defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone on Wednesday for a now-retracted article the magazine published about a gang rape.
The article named neither the three men suing nor any other Phi Psi brothers, but the lawsuit claims, according to the Daily Mail, that “vivid details” in the article made them identifiable, causing “emotional turmoil” that left them “unable to focus at work and in school”.
The three men are seeking damages for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
A definitive reason was not given for Dana’s leave, but “many factors go into a decision like this”, Rolling Stone’s publisher, Jann S. Wenner, told the Times.
The three UVA graduates say in the complaint filed in federal court Wednesday that they were humiliated and mocked after they were presumed to be participants in an alleged sexual assault that was the centerpiece of the story.
The story created a storm of criticism and the fraternity was suspended by UVA.
A postmortem conducted by the Columbia Journalism School found numerous flaws in the magazine’s reporting and editing that allowed the bogus story to get into print.
The fraternity announced in April that it would be suing the magazine, although no lawsuit has yet been filed. Dana was “one of the finest editors I have ever worked with”, Wenner said. “It has been a great ride and I loved it even more than I imagined I would”.
A spokeswoman for Rolling Stone confirmed that The Times story was accurate, but declined to provide additional details.
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Dana’s last day with Rolling Stone is set for August 7, and he is not heading to another job, theNew York Times reports.
