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*Veteran Los Angeles Times music critic Chuck Phillips became the latest casualty in the newspaper's ongoing efforts to cut costs.
The journalist, most recently in the news for his controversial stories surrounding the murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., was let go as part of the paper's cost reduction campaign.
Phillips won a Pulitzer in 1999 for covering corruption in the music business. In 2002, he wrote an investigative story implicating B.I.G., (real name Christopher Wallace), in Tupac's murder.
The story alleged that Wallace ventured to Las Vegas the day of Shakur’s murder and paid the Southside Crips to be the hitmen, and that he also gave them a specific gun he wanted used in the killing.
In March, Phillips wrote an article claiming Tupac’s 1994 shooting, was orchestrated by moguls Sean "Diddy" Combs and James “Jimmy Henchmen” Rosemond.
However, The Smoking Gun web site revealed that Phillips based his story on forged FBI documents written by James Sabatino, a con man incarcerated in federal prison.
The Times retracted the story in April and wrote an apology to Combs and Rosemond, stating that the “report relied heavily on information the Times no longer believes to be credible.”