The Los Angeles Times apologized on Wednesday for a story written by Pulitzer-winning reporter Chuck Philips, which linked rap star Sean "Puffy" Combs to the shooting of Tupac Shakur.

The paper has launched an internal investigation and Philips has issued an apology, after the editor of investigative site The Smoking Gun pointed out the alleged FBI documents were forged.

"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job," Philips said. "I'm sorry."

After the story ran, Combs had denied the claims, calling them "beyond ridiculous and ... completely false."

Said LA Times editor Russ Stanton in a statement: "We published this story with the sincere belief that the documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the point."

Good intentions don't excuse inaccurate information in the newspaper industry.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used. We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the story. We are continuing to investigate this matter and will fulfill our journalistic responsibility for critical self-examination."

Is this a case of the press forcing scoops related to the entertainment industry, in an effort to draw eyeballs? It doesn't seem so at this point.

However, Combs' attorney, Howard Weitzman, said he had already sent two letters in the past week to demand that the story be retracted, but that the paper didn't act until The Smoking Gun questioned the story. He pointed to a lack of editorial oversight in running the story.

"I don't think it is journalistically responsible; you would want your paper to be more careful," he said. "I think it is wrong that they ignored our request."

Source: New York Times - Brand Republic - Editor & Publisher