L.A. Times believes the crap on death of West Coast Rap

The L.A. Times walked itself right into the infamous East/West Coast rap rivalry and got caught in the crossfire. An article on The Smoking Gun revealed that Chuck Philips, a reporter from the Times, reported on the death of (in)famous rapper Tupac Shakur using fabricated documents by a mentally unstable prisoner, thus falsely saying Sean "P. Diddy" Combs was in on the plot.

Though the Times published an article apologizing for is actions, Bob Steele of Poynter Online points out some important questions the situation raises about the Times and the newspaper industry today. Steele writes:

"...let me suggest that much of the attention in that internal review should focus on how the quality control process at the LA Times apparently fell far short."

Here is one of the more compelling questions Steele raises:

"Have recent cutbacks in staffing at the Los Angeles Times and the loss of some veteran editors affected the quality control process on stories like this one? If so, how?"

Could it be that trying to get a better bottom line by cutting the staff of papers like the Times is finally reaching the point where it may cost the newspaper more than they can afford--both in legal fees and in credibility? Could the report on rap that turned out to be crap really point to more serious implications of cutting corners?