Comedian Ed Helms Tears Into Rolling Stone During UVA Commencement Speech

Comedian Ed Helms delivered the commencement address at the University of Virginia yesterday, and took a moment to really tear into Rolling Stone for how much its discredited UVA rape report hurt the community.

Helms, whom you’ll recognize as Andy from The Office or Stu from the Hangover movies, mostly kept things light and joke-y, and even gave a shoutout to the UVA a capella group that made an appearance with him one time on The Office.

Helms talked about his own experience being “defined by outsiders,” and acknowledge that’s happened to the UVA community as well, before squaring in on Rolling Stone:

“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.”

He told the gathered students, parents, and faculty that in trying to write a thinly-sourced story about a rape on campus, not only was UVA “thrown deep into turmoil,” the cause of fighting sexual assault was “needlessly set back.”

Earlier this week, one of the university deans announced a planned defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone for $7.5 million.

Watch Helms’ full address here (the Rolling Stone remarks start around the 9:40 mark):

[h/t THR]
[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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