Good and bad research

Hmmm. It's been an interesting week in newspaper reporting, what with The Smoking Gun knocking down the L.A. Times' story about a possible Sean Combs involvement in the Tupak Shakur murder. This one certainly needed better research and it's always interesting when a Web startup (although Smoking Gun has been around a long time now) does a better job than a major newspaper. More at Editor & Publisher.

On the other side, wonderful reporting from the New York Times about the Miami Beach company led by a 22-yr-old with legal troubles and a vice president who's a licensed masseur, which somehow got a $300-million defense contract to supply ammunition to Afghanistan. Supplier Under Scrutiny on Aging Arms for Afghans. Congrats to this reporting team, which included researcher Margot Williams.

And, of course, there's always a Miami connection, in both these stories.

Updated, the Miami Herald catches up on the contractor story with a glimpse at the proprieter's MySpace page....