Tupac/LA Times Hoax: Does it undermine confidence in the media?
The Los Angeles Times today issued an apology for a report last week that linked Sean “Diddy” Combs to an attack on rap singer Tupac Shakur in 1994. According to the story on the Times’ web site today:
The story first appeared March 17 on latimes.com under the headline “An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War.” The article described a Nov. 30, 1994, ambush at Quad Recording Studios in New York, where the rap singer was pistol-whipped and shot several times by three men. No one has been charged in the crime, but before his death two years later, Shakur said repeatedly that he suspected allies of rap impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The apology comes after a report yesterday by The Smoking Gun web site, which flat-out declared that the LA Times was hoaxed with forged FBI documents.
…those FBI reports, dubbed “302s” due to the numbered government form on which they are prepared, are nowhere to be found in the bureau’s computerized Automated Case Support database, [The Smoking Gun] has learned.
NPR’s Morning Edition reported on the story this morning, with an interview from one of The Smoking Gun’s staff.
Now, it’s a pretty popular pastime to bash the media, so I may be sorry for asking about this. But hopefully, we can do better than a simple day of media-bashing. People need to get their news somewhere, right? Right? C’mon! I’ve got two kids to put through college!
But what does a story like this mean for readers? How does a case like this affect your trust of news sources? Does a story like this shake your faith in the media, if you had any? Through what lens do you interpret the news you read online or in print, or watch on television, or hear on the radio?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Most media, most people, and most every facet of government, no one cares about what the truth is, but only would they want it to be.
Media reporters have gone the way of the carrier pigeons. That is best evidenced by stories about global warming. That is the epitome of fallacious, inaccurate, and grant driven reporting.
I have read thousands of articles on the subject, and have never seen one that I couldn’t]t refute off the top of my head.
Consensus, even if there was some, does not equate “Science” in any way. Remember, it was consensus that that “proved ” the Earth was flat?
Further, Ethanol is highly touted as being a way, to lessen dependence on foreign oil. The fact is that it “Increases” the need for foreign oil. It’s another Fraud perpetrated by writers.
Actually, there are many proven scientific studies that support global warning conclusions. That isn’t even up for dispute anymore except for those who have an agenda in earth destroying activities, or are extremely accepting of conservative dogma of any kind. The media has become a giant cluster-F of the same stories being sold and passed around. This newspaper has taken on some stories that gave them grief when they exposed local crooks, so there IS hope.
I have zero faith in the print media, including the PD. Today there was an apology from the PD editors for a similar “hoax.” When did journalists stop being journalists? Story after story in the PD does not answer questions or probe for facts. Not one so-called journalist even thought to question whether the uproar in the Kirkwood mayor’s race was political - meaning Democrat activists were involved in the controversy. Are you kidding me? It took me two seconds to figure out what was going on in Kirkwood.
I just read the redaction on the Easter Story (Pamala Brown/Virginia Gillis), and I have to say, it was very classy. Not only did the PD apologize for the errors (basically trusting, but not verifying) they went back and did good, solid research on the person who scammed them.
Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone apologizes and tries to make it right. Good job PD.