As I wrap up my senior year of college I’m looking into the events surrounding the publishing of an article for the LA Times that was written by Chuck Philips.
On March 17th Philips and the Times published a story on their website (it has since been pulled from their site – I provide you with a copy here) that detailed the shooting of 2Pac at Quad Recording studios in 1994. Philips story claimed that Puff Daddy and Jimmy Rosemond orchestrated the shooting. The story was run on the entertainment front page of the Times print edition on the 19th.
On the 26th the website The Smoking Gun published the story “Big Phat Liar” examining the documents that served as the basis for much of Philips article and looking into the history of a one James Sabatino. The report found the documents Philips relied on to be forgeries that were most likely created by Sabatino, who also plays an integral role in Philips story.
The following day the LA Times issued an apology and on April 7th a formal retraction was published, along with the apology once again for extra emphasis.
The events surrounding this situation are not entirely clear. My purpose here will be to analyze the responsibility and ethics surrounding the issue and to consider how it could have been handled differently.
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