This afternoon Columbia Journalism School Dean Steve Coll and Dean of Faculty Sheila Coronel fielded questions about their new and comprehensive investigation into a recent Rolling Stone feature. Entitled "A Rape on Campus," the feature detailed an alleged 2012 gang rape at the University of Virginia.

In it, the alleged victim recounted being raped by members of UVA's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, speaking under the pseudonym Jackie. The piece was heavily scrutinized when it came to light that its author, journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely, had never contacted or questioned the alleged rapists.

Feeling considerable heat, Rolling Stone asked Columbia Journalism School to conduct an independent review of Erdley's piece last December. In January, Charlottesville's policy captain stated, "We found no basis to believe that an incident [rape] occurred at that fraternity." A thorough police report in March did not align with Jackie's story, and today, Rolling Stone removed the feature from its website, replacing it with Columbia's findings.

Findings that are pretty damning for Rolling Stone:

Rolling Stone's repudiation of the main narrative in "A Rape on Campus" is a story of journalistic failure that was avoidable. The failure encompassed reporting, editing, editorial supervision and fact-checking. The magazine set aside or rationalized as unnecessary essential practices of reporting that, if pursued, would likely have led the magazine's editors to reconsider publishing Jackie's narrative so prominently, if at all. The published story glossed over the gaps in the magazine's reporting by using pseudonyms and by failing to state where important information had come from.

Throughout the conference, Coll and Coronel were unflinching in their criticism of Rolling Stone's story. Coll stated, "This report is very much intended as a piece of journalism about a failure of journalism." But they also stressed that their intention was not to deter journalists from reporting on rape allegations in the future.

"It would be really unfortunate outcome if journalists backed away from doing this kind of reporting as a result of a highly visible failure," said Coll. "Because this is important work, and it's hard work... We have to have a conversation amongst ourselves about how to do it better."

Nor was their intention to dissuade victims of sexual assault from going public. Coll told reporters, "We don't believe that Jackie is to blame." Rather, "It was the collective fault of the writer, editor, the editor's supervisor, and the fact checking department."

Lena Dunham took to Instagram to express a similar sentiment yesterday.

For her own part, Erdley issued this statement yesterday:

“Over my 20 years of working as an investigative journalist ... I have often dealt with sensitive topics and sources. In writing each of these stories I must weigh my compassion against my journalistic duty to find the truth. However, in the case of Jackie and her account of her traumatic rape, I did not go far enough to verify her story. I allowed my concern for Jackie’s well-being, my fear of re-traumatizing her, and my confidence in her credibility to take the place of more questioning and more facts. These are mistakes I will not make again.

“Reporting on rape has unique challenges, but the journalist still has the responsibility to get it right. I hope that my mistakes in reporting this story do not silence the voices of victims that need to be heard.”