LA Times Retracts Tupac Shakur Story

by Jarrett Martineau | April 8, 2008 at 11:40 am

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The LA Times has retracted stories about Tupac Shakur's murder that relied on information from 'fabricated' FBI reports. Now that's some Pulitzer-prize worthy reporting.

At least they were called out on their errors and have owned up to them; that's more than we can say for most media outlets.

The Los Angeles Times on Monday retracted stories that implied purported associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs assaulted Tupac Shakur in 1994 and that Combs knew about it ahead of time.
The newspaper said the March 17 online story and a shorter version in the newspaper on March 19 relied heavily on what turned out to be phony FBI documents. The stories were written by Pulitzer-prize winning staff writer Chuck Philips.

The Times also retracted statements Philips made in two online chats and the newspapers' blog. It did not provide details of the statements.

The article, titled "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War" purported to relate new information about a 1994 assault on Shakur, including a description of events contained in FBI reports.

The shooting triggered a feud between East and West Coast rappers that later led to the killings of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.

"The Times has since concluded that the FBI reports were fabricated and that some of the other sources relied on — including the person Philips previously believed to be the 'confidential source' cited in the FBI reports — do not support major elements of the story," the newspaper said.