On Saturday, actor and comedian Ed Helms delivered the commencement address to the University of Virginia’s graduating class of 2015. Famous for his comedic roles on The Office and The Hangover movies, Helms had the audience laughing from the many jokes he told, but also took the time to discuss serious matters.
Helms noted UVA’s contributions and its many well-known alumni. He also used his time to take shots at Rolling Stone for the lack of “journalistic integrity” they exhibited when they printed a false rape story that had damaged UVA’s reputation across the country.
In 2014, Rolling Stone published the blockbuster story “A Rape on Campus” which detailed the rape of “Jackie” at a fraternity party. The story was riddled with holes and has since been debunked.
Addressing the audience, Helms didn’t hold back:
“I know the UVA community has some experience with being defined by outsiders. It has been said that a rolling stone gathers no moss. I would add that sometimes a Rolling Stone also gathers no verifiable facts or even the tiniest morsels of journalistic integrity.”
“Rolling Stone tried to define you this year. As a result, not only was this community thrown deep into turmoil, but the incredibly important struggle to address sexual violence on campuses nationwide was suddenly more confusing than ever and needlessly set back. And sadly, Rolling Stone's rush to define is just the tip of the iceberg. We see it everywhere in the media.”
“This community didn’t fall for the fallacy that just because Rolling Stone was wrong everything here must be perfectly peachy. You all had the courage to understand you can be outraged at Rolling Stone and still ask yourselves hard questions: if sexual violence does occur in our community, do we have the best possible protocols and resources available to our students? And UVA is charging forward to answer those questions and you should be proud of that.”
Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana wrote in an apology last November, “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced. We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story.”
Dana may have issued a lame apology, but that still hasn’t stopped the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity from pursuing legal action against Rolling Stone, or the recent defamation lawsuit filed by University of Virginia associate dean of students, Nicole Eramo. In the lawsuit, Eramo claims that “the article destroyed her credibility, permanently damaged her reputation and caused her emotional distress. She assailed the account as containing numerous falsehoods that the magazine could have avoided if it had worked to verify the story…”
During a time when so many celebrities often use their fame for questionable causes (such as Jay-Z and Beyonce sending money to bail out Ferguson and Baltimore rioters…I mean “protesters”), it’s refreshing to see someone such as Helms using his fame to do what Rolling Stone seems incapable of doing – setting the record straight.