Times retracts hoax Diddy story
2008-04-07 11:46
Dean Goodman
Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times on
Monday retracted a story that linked hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy"
Combs to the 1994 shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, admitting
that the report relied on fake FBI documents.
The move came three weeks after the paper's website
carried a lengthy story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Chuck Philips,
who said that associates of Combs had arranged the assault on
Shakur because they were angry that he had rejected overtures
to sign with Combs' Bad Boy Records label.
Combs immediately called the Times story "beyond ridiculous
and ... completely false." He strongly denied any involvement
in the attack.
The Smoking Gun, a website that specialises in uncovering
news from legal documents and court filings, said the following
week that it believed Federal Bureau of Investigation documents
used by the Times were forgeries.
The paper quickly launched an investigation, and Philips
issued an apology on March 27, as did his supervisor, deputy
managing editor Marc Duvoisin.
Monday's retraction, in which the Times reiterated its
apology, involves the March 17 story, which has been removed
from its website, as well as a shorter version that appeared
in print two days later.
It also retracted comments made by
Philips in two online chats as well as a blog.
'Misimpression'
"To the extent these publications could be interpreted as
creating the impression that Combs was involved in arranging
the attack, The Times wishes to correct that misimpression,
which was neither stated in the article nor intended," it
said.
The Smoking Gun story - posted at
http://www.thesmokinggun.com - said the FBI documents were
created by one of the subjects in the Times' report, James
Sabatino, who is now in jail for wire fraud and racketeering.
The documents had black marks covering the name of the
agent or agents who prepared them, appeared to be created in
part with a typewriter, and were "nowhere to be found" in the
FBI's computer system, according to The Smoking Gun.
Shakur, a charismatic singer and actor, survived a beating
and gunshot wounds to the groin, head, hand and thigh during
the 1994 attack.
Baptism by fire
He was killed two years later in an unsolved
drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The hoax marks a baptism by fire for Russ Stanton, an
insider who took over as editor of the fourth-largest paper in
the United States in February, a month after the departure of
the third editor in less than three years.
Newsroom morale has
plunged as the paper's owners seek to cut costs.
The paper's Tribune Co parent was taken private last
December in a deal led by Chicago billionaire Sam Zell.
The
deal left Tribune saddled with $13bn of debt at a time
when the economy appears headed into a recession.
- Reuters