Photo by specialklikethecereal via Flickr

And so it ends... for now. Pulitzer Prize winner Chuck Philips' Tupac Shakur story from March 17 has been officially retracted and with a lengthy explanation. It begins...

The article, titled "An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War" and written by Times staff writer Chuck Philips, purported to relate "new" information about a 1994 assault on rap star Tupac Shakur, including a description of events contained in FBI reports.

The Times has since concluded that the FBI reports were fabricated and that some of the other sources relied on -- including the person Philips previously believed to be the "confidential source" cited in the FBI reports -- do not support major elements of the story.

The print version, the web publication of it and the shorter version of the article all have been retracted. But not only that, a Soundboard blog post from March 21st is being retracted. The retraction continues its apology: "To the extent these publications could be interpreted as creating the impression that [Sean "P. Diddy"] Combs was involved in arranging the attack, The Times wishes to correct that misimpression, which was neither stated in the article nor intended."

At the end of the retraction, the Times reprints in full the front-page apology from March 27 to reiterate that apology.

Previously on LAist
-- Online Metaphor Saves Last Remaining Dead Horse Molecules, Humiliates Gullible Local Paper