How Rolling Stone's rape story became 'its worst nightmare'

A Rolling Stone article describing the brutal gang-rape of a University of Virginia (UVA) student was dubbed 'our worst nightmare' by staff as they slowly realized it was built on a foundation of lies, newly released documents show.

'We're going to have to run a retraction,' wrote Sabrina Rubin Erdely, author of 'A Rape on Campus,' the now-discredited November 2014 story that ultimately saw the magazine facing multi-million-dollar lawsuits.

The email - titled 'our worst nightmare' - can be found among hundreds of pages of notes, correspondence and other information released Friday that shed light on the piece's construction, reception - and collapse.

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