Look, newspapers print admissions of errors every day. But to acknowledge that you screwed up this bad deserves a Stephen Glass Award for biggest journalistic fart.So far, in 2008 that dubious distinction belongs to the Los Angeles Times for printing a story about the first shooting of Tupac Shakur in 1994. The other day, the Times printed a retraction of the story because there simply wasn't enough evidence to substantiate the findings of reporter Chuck Philips. The guy even had me going because he's been on this story for the better part of a decade, but I wonder how much longer he's going to stay on this.
Hey, every reporter learns lessons early on about erroneous information, and that data should be checked twice and three times before being sent to the copy desk. An old editor once told me: "If there's an error in this story, I'll tie you up in a chair and let vultures peck your eyes out of the sockets."
I got the picture immediately.
None of this is to say that Philips didn't understand that as well, after all, he is a seasoned investigative reporter.
But an FBI report that alleges people connected to Sean "Diddy" Combs set up the robbery and shooting of Shakur at a Times Square, New York recording studio, and that Diddy knew in advance of the shootings were never found to be credible. In fact, it turns out that one of the main people named in the report is really a prison con man, a liar about his Hip Hop street cred, and faked the funk about his involvement in the incident.This means that the document that the story is based on doesn't hold water and the Times can no longer stand behind the article. Actually the article would have kept rolling, but The Smoking Gun busted the investigation wide open simply because the website specializes in analysis of public records. Actually, there was a time when newspapers did that, too. But instead, too many now specialize in perpetuating WMD hype.
The Times' editors fell even harder on their swords, admitting that the article may have created the impression that Diddy had something to do with the ambush and apologized to him. The DiddMeister has already issued several statements rejecting the newspaper's allegations.
So looks like this is a serious black eye for the Times, but I don't get any pleasure out of this because their error makes all the rest of us who work in the news business look even worse.
At this point, I'm not sure if we'll ever know who's responsible for the death of 'Pac or Biggie Smalls for that matter. But the lesson to be learned here -- which most of us who grew up in the streets learn early -- is that you NEVER trust a prison snitch.
If the Los Angeles Times didn't know, they betta' ask somebody.
1. I personally feel that everybody make mistakes, and that was a "Big mistake" to make on someone, but for the first time, the reporter should not be fired, but disciplined. If the reporter continue to make major mistake, then he or she should be terminated from their job.
Antoinette Wallace at 7:10PM on Apr 10th 2008