LA Times apologises over article on Tupac

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Times apologised Thursday for an article based on bogus documents that linked rap mogul Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to the 1994 armed assault of late rapper Tupac Shakur.

The newspaper published an article 10 days ago citing ‘FBI records’ in which a confidential informant accused two men linked to Combs of helping to set up the shooting in New York, which seriously wounded Shakur. But the March 17 article’s reporter and his supervising editor said they now believe that the documents were fabricated, after their authenticity were challenged by the website thesmokinggun.com.”In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job,” Chuck Philips, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, said in a statement published in an LA Times article.”I’m sorry.”Combs’ lawyer Howard Weitzman, in a statement sent to AFP, called the apology “at best, a first step”, but did not reveal if his client would sue the newspaper over the “untruthful allegations and the irresponsible conduct of this particular reporter.”The story, headlined ‘An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War’, alleged that James Rosemond, a rap talent manager, and James Sabatino, identified as a promoter, wanted to curry favour with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.Combs and Rosemond vehemently rejected the article’s allegations.Combs’s attorney demanded a retraction.The Smoking Gun said Sabatino forged the documents.Times Editor Russ Stanton said the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting of 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.”The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used.We apologise both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the story,” he said.No one has been charged for the November 30 1994 assault on Shakur in his Quad Recording Studios in New York.The shooting triggered a rap war pitting West Coast rappers including Shakur against East Coast rivals represented by superstar rapper Notorious B.I.G, whose real name was Christopher Wallace.Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in September 1996 and Wallace was shot dead in Lost Angeles six months later.The killers in both murders remain at large.Nampa-AFPBut the March 17 article’s reporter and his supervising editor said they now believe that the documents were fabricated, after their authenticity were challenged by the website thesmokinggun.com.”In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job,” Chuck Philips, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, said in a statement published in an LA Times article.”I’m sorry.”Combs’ lawyer Howard Weitzman, in a statement sent to AFP, called the apology “at best, a first step”, but did not reveal if his client would sue the newspaper over the “untruthful allegations and the irresponsible conduct of this particular reporter.”The story, headlined ‘An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War’, alleged that James Rosemond, a rap talent manager, and James Sabatino, identified as a promoter, wanted to curry favour with Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.Combs and Rosemond vehemently rejected the article’s allegations.Combs’s attorney demanded a retraction.The Smoking Gun said Sabatino forged the documents.Times Editor Russ Stanton said the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting of 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.”The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used.We apologise both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the story,” he said.No one has been charged for the November 30 1994 assault on Shakur in his Quad Recording Studios in New York.The shooting triggered a rap war pitting West Coast rappers including Shakur against East Coast rivals represented by superstar rapper Notorious B.I.G, whose real name was Christopher Wallace.Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas in September 1996 and Wallace was shot dead in Lost Angeles six months later.The killers in both murders remain at large.Nampa-AFP

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