6 ms·

Apparently people are looking into Sabrina Ruben-Erdely's history and it resembles Stephen Glass[0] with a sex-crime angle. Poorly researched articles and lazy

Apparently people are looking into Sabrina Ruben-Erdely's history and it resembles Stephen Glass[0] with a sex-crime angle. Poorly researched articles and lazy fact checking built her a career where RS was paying her $43,000 a story for 3-4 pieces a year that she made up herself and fed to her 'sources' to repeat back to her. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Glass

dredmorbius 10y ago
Source on Ruben-Erdely history?
- danso 10y ago
  When the UVA rape story unravelled, there was heightened scrutiny of Erdely's other work. I remember that a 2011 story of hers got particular notice: This 2011 story, "The Catholic Church's Secret Sex-Crime Files", was also published in Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-churchs-secret-sex-crime-files-20110906 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-church... A Newsweek writer, who apparently covered this altar boy case as a reporter in Philadelphia, wrote this critique a few weeks after the UVa story collapsed: http://www.newsweek.com/another-rolling-stone-rape-article-has-major-holes-291257 http://www.newsweek.com/another-rolling-stone-rape-article-h... > Erdely’s problems with the Billy Doe story began when she accepted as gospel, as did other reporters, a 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that claimed Billy was raped as a 10-year-old altar boy by two priests, who passed him around like a piñata, and then a year later, by his sixth-grade homeroom teacher at his parish school. The Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, also ran with Billy’s story without doing any investigating. Not sure if Newsweek's allegations ever amounted to any action -- by this time in late 2014, RS and Erdely were so up shit creek with the UVa story that there wasn't much interest in how she might have screwed up in the past. But Newsweek did write a lengthy follow-up about the altar boy case in 2016, continuing to argue the case that the alleged victim lied: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/billy-doe-altar-boy-sends-four-men-prison-philadelphia-rape-case-417565.html http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/billy-doe-altar-boy-sends... To be clear, Erdely's 2011 Rolling Stone story was not what sent the defendants to jail. Her story was based off of a grand jury report. The story was published before the men went to trial, but it's not as if her story launched the trial. So the Newsweek 2016 followup only mentions her in passing, as the real purported problem is with the district attorney. Erdely is just faulted for not being very good at scrutinizing the prosecution.
mafribe 10y ago
Is $43k per story a normal salary for journalists in the US? If so, journalism is a more lucrative even today than I had imagined.
- beachstartup 10y ago
  no. it isn't. this isn't journalism, as proven in court. she was a paid propagandist, that's something entirely different. it's more akin to being a political operative.
- maehwasu 10y ago
  Journalism is one of the worst-compensated jobs there is, relative to the level of education and time investment required. Shilling pre-planned story angles for sugar daddies, on the other hand, pays quite well.
- danso 10y ago
  The $43K number comes out of the revelation in court documents that her contract with RS was $300K for 2 years, for 7 stories: http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/21/rolling-stone-paid-reporter-nearly-43000-for-disastrous-uva-article/ http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/21/rolling-stone-paid-reporte... That's a good salary that most journalists would dream to reach, but keep in mind a few things: 1. It's still freelance work, which means that she's not getting paid health benefits. 2. She's been writing at least 20 years now and she, up to that point, was highly decorated. 3. She's based in New York. 4. Those stories are meant to have huge impact and seen by millions. The UVA story, if she hadn't botched it, would have the potential to cause systemic change. As a point of comparison, I did a lookup for "writer" in California public salaries: http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=writer http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=writer Top writing jobs (mostly technical) are reaping $110K+ before benefits: http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Epic%20Report%20Writer%20II http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Epic%20R... Moreover, they can retire at age 55 with a pension that puts them well above middle class: http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/search/?q=writer http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/search/?q=writer As another point of comparison, the executive editor of the NYTimes starts at around $500K: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/report-abramson-salary-100k-below-male-editor-188637 http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/report-abramson-... That's a ton of money for journalism. But you'd laugh if you heard that that's what the CEOs of Google or Microsoft made. Here's some salaries of top people at NPR and TAL: http://www.andymboyle.com/2013/07/21/an-updated-look-at-ira-glass-and-other-public-media-salaries/ http://www.andymboyle.com/2013/07/21/an-updated-look-at-ira-... Ira Glass had a base salary of $148K in 2010. Rob Siegel had a base salary of $320K.

dredmorbius 10y ago

Source on Ruben-Erdely history?

danso 10y ago
When the UVA rape story unravelled, there was heightened scrutiny of Erdely's other work. I remember that a 2011 story of hers got particular notice: This 2011 story, "The Catholic Church's Secret Sex-Crime Files", was also published in Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-churchs-secret-sex-crime-files-20110906 http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/the-catholic-church... A Newsweek writer, who apparently covered this altar boy case as a reporter in Philadelphia, wrote this critique a few weeks after the UVa story collapsed: http://www.newsweek.com/another-rolling-stone-rape-article-has-major-holes-291257 http://www.newsweek.com/another-rolling-stone-rape-article-h... > Erdely’s problems with the Billy Doe story began when she accepted as gospel, as did other reporters, a 2011 Philadelphia grand jury report that claimed Billy was raped as a 10-year-old altar boy by two priests, who passed him around like a piñata, and then a year later, by his sixth-grade homeroom teacher at his parish school. The Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, also ran with Billy’s story without doing any investigating. Not sure if Newsweek's allegations ever amounted to any action -- by this time in late 2014, RS and Erdely were so up shit creek with the UVa story that there wasn't much interest in how she might have screwed up in the past. But Newsweek did write a lengthy follow-up about the altar boy case in 2016, continuing to argue the case that the alleged victim lied: http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/billy-doe-altar-boy-sends-four-men-prison-philadelphia-rape-case-417565.html http://www.newsweek.com/2016/01/29/billy-doe-altar-boy-sends... To be clear, Erdely's 2011 Rolling Stone story was not what sent the defendants to jail. Her story was based off of a grand jury report. The story was published before the men went to trial, but it's not as if her story launched the trial. So the Newsweek 2016 followup only mentions her in passing, as the real purported problem is with the district attorney. Erdely is just faulted for not being very good at scrutinizing the prosecution.

mafribe 10y ago

Is $43k per story a normal salary for journalists in the US? If so, journalism is a more lucrative even today than I had imagined.

beachstartup 10y ago
no. it isn't. this isn't journalism, as proven in court. she was a paid propagandist, that's something entirely different. it's more akin to being a political operative.
maehwasu 10y ago
Journalism is one of the worst-compensated jobs there is, relative to the level of education and time investment required. Shilling pre-planned story angles for sugar daddies, on the other hand, pays quite well.
danso 10y ago
The $43K number comes out of the revelation in court documents that her contract with RS was $300K for 2 years, for 7 stories: http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/21/rolling-stone-paid-reporter-nearly-43000-for-disastrous-uva-article/ http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/21/rolling-stone-paid-reporte... That's a good salary that most journalists would dream to reach, but keep in mind a few things: 1. It's still freelance work, which means that she's not getting paid health benefits. 2. She's been writing at least 20 years now and she, up to that point, was highly decorated. 3. She's based in New York. 4. Those stories are meant to have huge impact and seen by millions. The UVA story, if she hadn't botched it, would have the potential to cause systemic change. As a point of comparison, I did a lookup for "writer" in California public salaries: http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=writer http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=writer Top writing jobs (mostly technical) are reaping $110K+ before benefits: http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Epic%20Report%20Writer%20II http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/search/?q=Epic%20R... Moreover, they can retire at age 55 with a pension that puts them well above middle class: http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/search/?q=writer http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/search/?q=writer As another point of comparison, the executive editor of the NYTimes starts at around $500K: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/report-abramson-salary-100k-below-male-editor-188637 http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/05/report-abramson-... That's a ton of money for journalism. But you'd laugh if you heard that that's what the CEOs of Google or Microsoft made. Here's some salaries of top people at NPR and TAL: http://www.andymboyle.com/2013/07/21/an-updated-look-at-ira-glass-and-other-public-media-salaries/ http://www.andymboyle.com/2013/07/21/an-updated-look-at-ira-... Ira Glass had a base salary of $148K in 2010. Rob Siegel had a base salary of $320K.