The murder of Tupac Shakur 14 years ago remains unsolved to this day. This does not mean that journalists and investigators have not been trying to unravel the mystery that has shrouded the violent loss of one of rap music's pioneers.

One such reporter, Chuck Phillips of the Los Angeles Times, was presented with alledged FBI documents accusing two men of their involvement in Shakur's murder. It was later discovered by The Smoking Gun that the documents were forged by a convicted con man who has a history of fabricating stories that make him appear to be very influential in the rap music industry. Phillips and his supervisor at the LA Times, Marc Duvoisin, failed to appropriately verify the authenticity of the documents before publishing the story on the newspaper's website on March 17, 2008.

Phillips and Duvoisin have subsequently retracted their story and apologized for writing accusatory statements based on falsified information. The pair overlooked numerous inaccuracies, such as misspellings and uncommon acronyms, in the documents which should have triggered their skepticism. Upon realizing the magnitude of his error, Phillips said, "In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job." Additionally, Duvoisin said, "We should not have let ourselves be fooled. That we were is as much my fault as Chuck's. I deeply regret that we let our readers down."

Clearly this entire situation should never have materialized. In news organizations, documents, especially those of a serious nature, are almost always questioned by several levels of authority. This did not happen in this particular case, though it certainly should have considering it implicates individuals in a murder plot. There were several steps that were never taken such as the very obvious one of confirming the document's authenticity with the FBI.

The result is the loss of credibility for a reporter who won the esteemed Pulitzer Prize less than a decade ago. It certainly seems worthwhile to do the little extra work that ensures your place among the elite in your field. I would imagine both Phillips and Duvoisin now agree.