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LAT: Call your liability carrier

By Mark Obbie

Well, this is awkward. Less than a day after The Smoking Gun accused the LA Times of publishing a bogus report on supposed revelations into the 1994 attack on rapper Tupac Shakur, the paper and its Pulitzer-winning reporter, Chuck Philips, apologized. They now say they evidently were scammed into basing the story on forged FBI documents. Weirdly, the original March 17 story remains online without any note (as of this writing) that the paper has disavowed it. That such an experienced investigative reporter as Philips, who explains in today's article by James Rainey how he attempted to confirm the authenticity of the documents, should prove chilling to all reporters who might put too much trust in a document. The Smoking Gun and Bill Bastone once again buff their reputation for creative reporting. And now, showboat lawyer Howard Weitzman, representing the target of Philips' reported conspiracy against Skakur, Sean "Diddy" Combs, takes center stage to seek a big, fat payment in lieu of a libel suit.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on March 27, 2008 (boomark / email).