Les Jones

Media Behaving Badly > Go Read Patterico for the Dope on the LA Times/Diddy/Tupac Story

The LA Times now admits it was conned with fake documents on a story it ran linking P. Diddy to an attack on Tupac Shukar. That's only part of the story. Patterico has the rest.

Chuck Philips, the author of the LA Times piece in question, has had a long and questionable relationship to the story of the Tupac killing and a conflict of interest in his reporting that would cause him to point blame away from Suge Knight:

Chuck Philips, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his music business reporting in 1999, has covered Death Row Records since the early ‘90’s. He has long been known for obtaining scoops and exclusive interviews for The Times due to his unmatched access to Suge Knight. Some critics have characterized him as Suge’s apologist and as a reporter corrupted by access. Others speculate there may be more to it than that. One key witness at the Biggie civil trial, Death Row insider Kevin Hackie, who identified David Mack as attending Death Row functions, also stated in a pre-trial deposition that “Chuck Philips was frequently at Death Row functions and received payments from Death Row Records.” Hackie backed off of this statement at trial, but he also tried to back away from everything he had told investigators, stating, convincingly, that “I’m in fear for my life.” Asked what he feared, Hackie stated: “Retribution by the Bloods, the Los Angeles Police Department and associates of Death Row Records.”