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Rolling Stone, Don Lemon top 2014 worst of journalism list

Aamer Madhani
USA TODAY

The high priests and priestesses of media, also known as the Columbia Journalism Review, have weighed in on the worst journalism of 2014.

CNN newsman Don Lemon apologized for graphically interrogating one of the women who has accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. During the interview with Joan Tarshis aired Tuesday night, Lemon responded to her claim that Cosby performed oral sex by suggesting she might have retaliated instead. Lemon apologized to anyone who found his questioning insensitive.

Among those cited by CJR for its 2014 DART awards are CNN, CBS' 60 Minutes and Rolling Stone magazine.

At the top of the CJR list is Rolling Stone for its narrative on "Jackie," a disturbing story about a University of Virginia undergraduate who said she was gang-raped at a fraternity.

After the article was published, the university suspended activity of Greek organizations on campus. Within days, though, big problems with the article began to surface, including the fact that the reporter, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, didn't contact the alleged perpetrators of Jackie's rape to get their side of the story.

CNN's Don Lemon also got a DART for several cringe-worthy on-air fumbles this year.

Lemon, who has established himself as one of CNN's go-to-reporters on big stories, was cited for gaffes that included pondering whether Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was swallowed by a black hole and telling an alleged rape victim of Bill Cosby, "You know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you don't want to do it. ... Meaning the use of teeth, right?"

In the midst of last month's unrest in Ferguson, Mo., Lemon offered this nugget from the scene, "Obviously, there's the smell of marijuana in the air."

CJR also took aim at 60 Minutes' Lara Logan for her segment "The Ebola Hot Zone." Reporting on the virus in Liberia, the South Africa-native Logan managed not to air one interview with an African.

Others receiving DARTs include Grantland for barely mentioning, in a story on the inventor of a superior golf club, that the inventor committed suicide after being outed by the reporter as transgender; Time for suggesting that "feminist" ought to be on its annual list of banished words; and Fox & Friends for joking about NFL player Ray Rice knocking his fiancee unconscious.

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