By Bob Tourtellotte 2 hours, 31 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday
apologized for publishing a story about the 1994 shooting of
rapper Tupac Shakur, after a Web site questioned the
authenticity of documents the paper used for the report.
The story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Chuck Philips sought to
link rap music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to the assault on
Shakur through two men the paper said were Combs' associates.
Shortly after its publication last week, Combs called the
Times story "beyond ridiculous and ... completely false." He
strongly denied any involvement in the attack.
The Smoking Gun, a Web site that specializes in uncovering
news from legal documents and court filings, said on Wednesday
it believed Federal Bureau of Investigation documents used by
the Times were forgeries.
The paper launched an immediate investigation, and Philips
issued an apology later in the day, as did his supervisor,
deputy managing editor Marc Duvoisin.
"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I
failed to do my job," Philips said. "I'm sorry."
Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton, who took the top job
last month after several years of cutback-related upheaval at
the fourth-largest paper in the United States, said he would
launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting
surrounding the story.
"We published this story with the sincere belief that the
documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the
point," Stanton said in a statement published on the paper's
Web site.
"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should
not have been used. We apologize both to our readers and to
those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the
story. We are continuing to investigate this matter and will
fulfill our journalistic responsibility for critical
self-examination."
Shakur, one of rap's rising singers, survived a beating and
gunshot wounds to the groin, head, hand and thigh at the Quad
Recording Studios in New York City in 1994 but was killed in
1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The documents have black marks covering the name of the
agent or agents who prepared them, appear as if parts were
created using a typewriter and "are nowhere to be found" in the
FBI's computer system, according to The Smoking Gun.
DETAILED ACCOUNT
The Times story, which first appeared on its Web site on
March 17 and days later in print, gave a detailed account of
the 1994 attack on Shakur.
At the time, Combs was one of rap's biggest producers with
his Bad Boy Records housing stars like the Notorious B.I.G.
(Christopher Wallace).
The 1994 attack ignited a widely reported feud between East
Coast and West Coast rappers that eventually led to the 1996
killing of Shakur. Six months later, Wallace was shot and
killed in Los Angeles.
Neither of the murders has been solved. The identity of
Shakur's attackers at Quad Studios has never been revealed.
an unnamed FBI informant as saying Sabatino and talent manager
Jimmy Rosemond planned Shakur's assault. Combs and Wallace knew
Shakur was being set up, the Times said.
In its story, the Times said it contacted the FBI informant
and verified he was at Quad Studios on the night of the
assault. It said other sources verified the informant's
account.
(Editing by Mary Milliken and Eric Beech)
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