Simply Dumb

The Los Angeles Times can’t backtrack away from its story implicating Sean “P-Diddy” Combs in a non-fatal attack on Tupac Shakur fast enough. Today the disgraced paper issued a formal retraction of the March 17 story saying associates of Combs staged a 1994 ambush attack on Shakur that led to his nonfatal shooting.

The piece implied that attack took place because Shakur wouldn’t sign with Combs’ Bad Boy Records. The Times relied heavily on now incarcerated James Sabatino as a source, but in today’s retraction said it no longer considers him a credible source. (Gee, ya think?) Sabatino is serving a federal prison sentence for wire fraud and racketeering. Sabatino provided FBI reports that the paper now believes were fabricated. They say he also falsified his status as an “associate” of P-Diddy.

Buzzfoto image by Mr. Nunez

“To the extent these publications could be interpreted as creating the impression that Combs was involved in arranging the attack, The Times wishes to correct that misimpression, which was neither stated in the article nor intended,” the retraction states.

The piece’s author, Pulitzer Prize winner Chuck Philips and his immediate supervisor Deputy Managing Editor Mark Duvoisin, have both issued apologies. Those were no doubt corporate ordered as The Times braces itself for a hellified suing.

The Times has now retracted the March 17 web publication of the article, s a shorter version of the article that appeared on Page E1 in the March 19 calendar section of the newspaper and statements Philips made in two online chats on March 18 and 25, and on The Times’ Soundboard blog on March 21. At this stage of the game, they’re probably trying to retract Philips’ birth certificate.

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