LA Times Apologise For Tupac Story

Tupac

Following all that speculation yesterday that the documents on which a bold LA Times article that alleged Sean 'P Diddy' Combs and Czar Entertainment chief Jimmy Rosemond had advance warning of the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur were faked, the newspaper yesterday staged a significant climb down, apologising to the hip hoppers for having published the allegations.

As previously reported, Pulitzer prize winning reporter Chuck Philips claimed in an LA Times piece to have seen FBI documents which he alleged gave credence to allegations that Combs and Rosemond were told about the 1994 shooting of Shakur before it happened. Although Tupac survived that shooting, many believe it acted as a catalyst to the rising tensions in hip hop town in the mid-nineties which did ultimately lead to his death, and the murder of rap rival the Notorious BIG. Combs and Rosemond quickly denied having any involvement in or prior knowledge of the Tupac shooting, and earlier this week Philips' article came under new attack when the SmokingGun website claimed the FBI docs the reporter referenced had been faked by one James Sabatino, a former (and slightly shady, by all accounts) Combs associate who is currently suing the hip hop mogul in a dispute over money.

Although Philips initially seemed to be standing by his story, yesterday he reportedly admitted he had been "duped" by the seemingly forged documents, after his paper admitted they should never have run a story based on that evidence. The paper's editor, Russ Stanton, said yesterday: "The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used. We apologise to both our readers and to those referenced in the documents and in the story".

Philips says that a former FBI agent examined the documents in question and gave the opinion that they were genuine, but he says he now wishes he had gone to greater lengths to investigate their authenticity before submitting his story. When the story was published the paper said it was based on the documents as well as eyewitness accounts and the evidence of an FBI informant, though given the climb down presumably the forged FBI papers were what gave the story credibility.

Stanton has promised an internal investigation into why editorial staff at the paper didn't raise any concerns about Philips' sources before publication, meanwhile speculation is rising about whether legal action will now follow from Combs or Rosemond. The two hip hop types' lawyers have added to that speculation by both welcoming the Times' apology, but at the same time making implied threats by saying a simply sorry is not enough.

Diddy's lawyer Howard Weitzman issued a statement yesterday saying the "apology is, at best, a first step, but it doesn't undo the false and defamatory nature of the story, or the suspicion and innuendo that Mr Combs has had to endure due to these untruthful allegations and the irresponsible conduct of this particular reporter", while a legal rep for Rosemond told Reuters: "Their apology does not go far enough".