For those who missed it, last week Rolling Stone published a potentially devastating story on the University of Virginia’s mishandling of rape and sexual assault on campus. Apparently UVa’s past responses have been so inadequate that it is now the target of two separate investigations by the federal Department of Education. However, that part of the story was largely drowned out when it emerged Rolling Stone committed a serious unforced error by failing to adequately fact-check key details in a now-junior’s claim that she had been brutally gang-raped in 2012. The odds are pretty good that the alleged victim, “Jackie,” has been the target of a backlash that’s at least as severe as the one Rolling Stone has faced. But for sheer ugliness, no response tops that of right-wing blogger and provocateur Charles C. Johnson. Late Sunday, he made good on a threat to reveal what he claimed to be “Jackie’s” true identity.
On Sunday afternoon, Johnson–no relation to Little Green Footballs’ creator–tweeted an ultimatum to Jackie. Unless she “told the truth,” Johnson threatened to reveal “everything about her past.” Later that night, he made a post on his blog, GotNews, purporting to reveal Jackie’s real name and hometown. As if that wasn’t despicable enough, he also claimed to have called Jackie’s home. His father answered and hung up on him–a far kinder response than Johnson would have gotten had I been her father or brother. On Monday, he posted what he claimed to be details from Jackie’s Pinterest account, and has also tried to make her supposed name a hashtag on Twitter. You’ll have to take my word for it, folks–for obvious reasons, I’m not linking to them. According to Talking Points Memo, at least one anonymous Twitter account published what was supposedly Jackie’s address and phone number, though that tweet has since been deleted. Apparently 4chan has gotten in on the act, along with several others.
Frankly, I’m at a loss for words to express how sickening, outrageous, and just plain wrong this is. Even if Jackie isn’t telling the truth about what happened that night, no one with even an iota of decency can condone this attempt to out her. Paradoxically, this may have confirmed why Jackie asked Rolling Stone not to try to contact the alleged rapists. She was afraid either they or someone else would try to retaliate against her. Although Rolling Stone has been panned for honoring that request, speaking as someone who has had to endure domestic violence that request was completely understandable. Where Rolling Stone fell down, though, was not adequately fact-checking the details before going to press–something which could have been done without contacting the suspects.
Johnson claims that Jackie is exposing herself to criminal charges by falsely accusing someone of raping her. And yet, he openly admitted to invading Jackie’s privacy. He claims to have called Jackie’s home, remember? He may also be guilty of extortion and reckless endangerment, and has also potentially exposed himself to being sued for libel if it turns out he fingered the wrong Jackie. Pot, meet kettle.
Twitter has been bombarded with calls to suspend Johnson’s account, as his actions are a flagrant violation of Twitter’s rules against posting private and confidential information. Back in October, Twitter shut off Johnson’s mic twice in a week–first for posting the address of someone who had been exposed to Ebola in Dallas, then for publicly asking for help to find the boyfriend of a Dallas nurse who had been exposed to Ebola. After this bit of pigweed, Johnson needs to be gone from Twitter for good. For good measure, it looks like his posts on GotNews violate the acceptable use policies of both his Webhost, MediaTemple, and his domain name registrar, GoDaddy. Be sure to report his Facebook page as well.
Jackie has reportedly retained a lawyer. If I were Johnson, I’d probably be expecting a call from that lawyer very soon–and I’d also have my own lawyer on speed dial.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
