The Los Angeles Times ran a front page apology this week for its report on the 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur. It turns out the report was based on falsified documents. The story's credibility was first questioned by smokinggun.com, which noted that the purported FBI documents published by the Times appeared to be created on a typewriter - even though the FBI had not used typewriters for 30 years. Media Critic Howard Kurtz, of the Washington Post, explains how the story and apology unfolded. The Poynter Institute's Bob Steele outlines questions that reporters and editors should be asking about stories before publication to prevent similar errors and ethics issues from happening. And check out Jay Smooth's take on his hip hop video blog.
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I was about to post about this story myself, but it looks as if you beat me to it. I think this story really speaks to the willingness to beat someone to a story without checking sources properly. I'm sure people would appreciate correct information a little later than incorrect breaking news, that they spread, and then end up looking silly when the information they were given is wrong.
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