Los Angeles Times Apologizes Regarding Story Which Implicated Biggie Smalls, Sean Puffy Combs and Jimmy Henchmen In Attack of Tupac Shakur

The Times apologizes over article on rapper
By Jim Rainey
A story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated.

A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday.

Reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, issued statements of apology Wednesday afternoon. The statements came after The Times took withering criticism for the Shakur article, which appeared on latimes.com last week and two days later in the paper's Calendar section.

"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Philips said in a statement Wednesday. "I'm sorry." In his statement, Duvoisin added: "We should not have let ourselves be fooled. That we were is as much my fault as Chuck's. I deeply regret that we let our readers down."