You Punks Didn't Finish

March 27, 2008

Feeling sick so I can't go into as much depth as I'd like. But here are the links to the Smoking Gun expose and the hiphopdx piece that totally saw it coming. Also the 1999 feature on Sabatini that's awfully hard to reconcile with Philips' account. (Although that old piece also cites an anonymous source, some guy named Max.. could it be...? Nah, nevermind)

The LA Times posted an apology late last night, but I still want answers on how this happened in the first place.. Philips reiterates that he had numerous sources corroborating the general facts, but never specifically says that other sources verified Sabatino's role in the incident, or that he even sought music biz sources to verify that Jimmy worked with Bad Boy etc.. until Philips gives specific evidence to the contrary I've got to assume that Sabatino was also his prime anonymous source and he failed to fact check Sabatino's delusions. And yes, this whole thing is looking hella Templeton.

Posted by jsmooth995 at March 27, 2008 8:42 AM

Comments

Nice on the Tommy Flanagan reference!

Posted by: rafi at March 27, 2008 9:36 AM

"I'm just a blogger. I'm not a professional like you guys." Ha! Anonymous sources my ass. And that Templeton reference is spot on.

Posted by: j. brotherlove at March 27, 2008 9:38 AM

haha. As I've been keeping up with this story, I keeping thinking of the Sun the homeless killer shenanigans.

Posted by: liz at March 27, 2008 10:06 AM

Way before the Smoking Gun thing broke, I got on the phone with Cheo the minute the story printed, because I had flashbacks to Phillips' bullshit Vegas/Biggie article way back when.

"He's doing it again?" I said.

For some reason, Chuck -- otherwise a good journalist -- simply loses his mind over this story. He really wants to believe that Bad Boy tried (and eventually succeeded) in offing Tupac.

It was a serious blow to his credibility then, as it is doubly now.

Anybody with a critical mind would suspect those stories -- given the sources used. When a journalist wants to believe something is true, and then sets about marshaling facts to prove it, its a dangerous thing.

There before the grace of God go us all.

Dan

Posted by: Dan Charnas at March 27, 2008 12:47 PM

Gotta sell those papers...right? Print media is still paying for it's shunning(sp?) of the Internet in the late 90's. Are bloggers becoming more trustworthy than journalist?

Posted by: Stealthgator at March 27, 2008 2:24 PM

I'm not going to condemn journalism as a whole just because there are some crappy journalists out there, just in the same way I wouldn't condemn hip hop because of the existence of Chingy. I will say that media's general inability to cover hip hop with the same ferocity that it covers other cultural events is sad but also slightly understandable.
HIp Hop can be an obtuse culture to cover for journalists. Remember when Coker got punched in the face because of the DRAWINGS in the article that he wrote? Journalists simply don't want to cover the real grimey street stories. Thus, they are easily led by useless fraudulent sources...

Posted by: Knots at March 27, 2008 5:54 PM

j, just found your site from your comments on feministing and this is definitely getting bookmarked... oh, and this story is ridiculous, but whaddaya expect?

Posted by: puck at March 30, 2008 9:06 PM

nice, i even saw this on interracialloves.com which is a dating site for interracial singles.

Posted by: coco 4 love at March 30, 2008 9:19 PM

some guy named Max.. could it be...? Nah, nevermind)

Hah!!! It took me years to understand your humor, but I totally get it, LOL.

P.S. I'm still around.

Posted by: Max-Jerome at April 7, 2008 1:21 PM

You Punks Didn't Finish

March 27, 2008

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