The Los Angeles Times today formally retracted its story that had an FBI informant implicating Sean "Diddy" Combs in a 1994 assault on fellow rapper Tupac Shakur. The paper previously apologized and reported that documents key to the March 17 story appeared to have been a hoax; it said today it was removing that story, and related posts, from its website.
The Smoking Gun had produced documents demonstrating that the paper had been hoaxed, provoking withering criticism from both mainstream media sources and bloggers. Many in the rap world had questioned the trustworthiness of informant James Sabatino, who appears to have embellished his connections to various rappers and fabricated FBI documents. (More Tupac Shakur stories.)