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Newspaper Sorry Over Tupac-Diddy Story

Posted: 2008-03-27 11:33:35

LOS ANGELES (March 27) - The Los Angeles Times apologized for using documents that were apparently fabricated in a story implicating associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs in a 1994 assault on rapper Tupac Shakur.

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Deceased: Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, during the height of the East Coast vs. West Coast rap feuds. He died six days later.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used," Editor Russ Stanton said in a story posted Wednesday night on the newspaper's Web site. "We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents ... and in the story."

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chuck Philips, who wrote the story, and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, also apologized.

The apologies followed an investigation launched by Stanton after The Smoking Gun Web site reported earlier in the day that the paper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents.

Combs denied that he had any prior knowledge of or involvement in the robbery and shooting of Shakur at a New York recording studio. He and other subjects of the story claimed they had been defamed by the newspaper.

Watch dozens more Tupac videos.

The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.

The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.

The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.

None of the sources was named.

Philips said Wednesday that a former FBI agent examined the documents in question for him and said they appeared to be legitimate.

But Philips said he wished he had done more to investigate their authenticity.

"I now believe the truth here is I got duped," he said.

Marc Lichtman, an attorney representing rap manager James Rosemond, one of two men the story linked to the Shakur attack, had earlier demanded an apology.

"I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks - or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit," Lichtman said Wednesday.

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

The story said associates hoping to curry favor with Combs - who was overseeing B.I.G.'s white-hot career at the time - lured Shakur to the studio because of his disrespect toward them.

The story and related features on latimes.com attracted nearly 1 million hits - more viewers than any other story on latimes.com this year, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2008-03-27 06:46:56

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67 comments

Winston6312 08:20:16 PM Mar 30 2008

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Dysfunctional, violent minds of screwed up children like Tupac.

Tell me one thing that the guy ever did in his life.

Perkins 1210 06:07:45 PM Mar 28 2008

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PLEASE TELL ME WHEN TUPAC ABUSED WOMEN???PLEASE

NO THE FACT BEFORE POST STUPID ASS COMMENTS ABOUT SOMEONE!

zws03 09:36:28 AM Mar 28 2008

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It was a gangbanger from LA that had stole a Death Row Medallion in an earlier brawl. Tupac and his people jumped the guy in a Vegas hotel hours before Tupac was killed.

Mjsim24 09:01:35 AM Mar 28 2008

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the only person worse than a rapper is Don King but like he says "only in America"

Mjsim24 08:53:33 AM Mar 28 2008

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eventhough as a crack fiend you still was a black queen .....absolute classic hahhahaha

grinkley617 08:15:32 AM Mar 28 2008

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Puff prolly did pay to have my dude Pac killed. He got that slimb-ball personality.
And he prolly paying to have that article remove out the paper. Come on people....MONEY TALKS!!! and Puff aint playin with thousands, He got MILLIONS!

Plus Pac was destroying BIG on the M.I.C. and that was Puff's only money maker beside wack MASE ;) Dont let that slim-ball off the hook like O.J.

Perkins 1210 07:33:03 AM Mar 28 2008

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PLEASE TELL ME WHEN TUPAC ABUSED WOMEN???PLEASE

NO THE FACT BEFORE POST STUPID ASS COMMENTS ABOUT SOMEONE!

raidersufcfan 02:52:38 AM Mar 28 2008

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It was the gang kid from LA. The cops know they just cant prove it.. _P-diddy had nothing to do with that West Coast poop

pjcyrus 02:46:24 AM Mar 28 2008

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It's a real shame that people idolize someone that abused women.

tbhilliard 01:31:49 AM Mar 28 2008

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I believe Suge Knight had more to do with the death of Tupac and Biggie than Diddy did but I still believe diddy did have something to do with their deaths.

pasoman73 12:45:59 AM Mar 28 2008

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who give a crap? wish more rap "singers" would shoot themselves to make a fast buck

bassn55 12:23:16 AM Mar 28 2008

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oh what the hell .

livinginharmonym 11:27:46 PM Mar 27 2008

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I believe that Diddy did have something to do with the deaths of both rappers. His butt was in the background until Biggie and Tupac died. Then, all of a sudden he's making it big. To hell with Dumb Diddy.