Chuck Phillips and his editors all apologize, but Diddy’s lawyers tell the paper to get its checkbook out

By Alex Ben Block

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/27/2008 – The Los Angeles Times has formally apologized over an article by reporter Chuck Phillips that purported to link Sean “Diddy” Combs to a 1994 attack on rap star Tupac Shakur. “In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job,” Philips said in a statement printed on page one of the paper today. “I’m sorry.”

Phillips’ editor on the story, LA Times Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin also apologized: “I deeply regret that we let our readers down.”

Newly appointed Times Editor Russ Stanton said the paper was continuing an internal investigation. “The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used,” Stanton said in a statement published in the paper. “

The document in question was supposed to be an FBI memo that was entered into the public realm as part of a court case involving James Sabatino, who had been identified in Philips original story as a “promoter.” In fact, he is in prison.

The documents quoted a “confidential informant” who said rap talent manger James Rosemond and Sabatino were trying to curry favor with Combs, and told him in advance about a planned attack on Shakur. Later, Shakur said he throught Combs was behind the attack, which Combs has denied.

The Phillips article had been published despite strong objections in advance and after it first appeared  on the LA Times web site, a day before it showed up in the paper’s Calendar section. Rosemond said the article created “a potential violent climate in the hip hop community.” His lawyer told the Times: I would suggest to Mr. Phillips and his editor that they immediate print an apology and take out their checkbooks—or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit.”

That suggests a mere apology, even on page one, may not be enough for Phillips and the LA Times to put this behind them. The lawyers are likely to say the paper acted recklessly when it printed the story after being told it was false when it appeared on the web site.

The hoax was first uncovered by the web site The Smoking Gun, where editor Bill Bastone said he was an acquaintance of Phillips, and the two had recently had lunch and discussed their passion for investigative reporting. Bastone says he told Phillips even before he published his story, “things just don’t feel right about this,” according to the report in the paper.

The documents in question that were supposed to be from the FBI were full of typos, misspelled words and was created on a typewriter. The FBI has used computer generated form for over 30 years.

Phillips was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999, but this is not the first time he has been involved in questionable reporting. In the past, the paper has punished journalists who made such errors by taking them off high profile beats but it is unclear in this case what punishment, if any, Phillips will receive for getting the paper in hot water.