NPR was forced to retract a story on Tuesday after it falsely reported that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring.The story, headlined "Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v.
Wade, retires," apparently started with a misheard announcement.The outlet said NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg was reporting on the final day of the Supreme Court session when, as she was leaving the court, she misheard Chief Justice John Roberts' announcement about upcoming retirements.NPR explained that it had a lengthy story about Alito's career already prepared, a practice that is common in the news industry that is often done ahead of notable retirements and deaths of important figures.Totenberg joined "All Things Considered" on Tuesday to explain what happened.
The reporter said that the error was "entirely on me" and something she called a "rookie mistake."The reporter then read on-air a letter that she wrote to Alito apologizing for the mistake.She noted that she had not heard back from the justice, adding that she did not expect to.NPR RETRACTS FALSE REPORT CLAIMING JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO IS RETIRING FROM THE SUPREME COURTUnited States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito on October 7, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
(Alex Wong/Getty Images)"Dear Justice Alito, there are no words to adequately apologize for today's error in reporting your retirement.It was entirely my fault," she said."I rushed out of the courtroom after the opinion announcements, and when I realized that the usual rush of folks after a few minutes had not happened, I asked somebody was going on inside, to which the answer was, 'retirement announcements.' I didn't hear the 's' on 'announcements,' and I assumed, something no reporter should ever do, that you were retiring.
It was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism.I could go on, but I don't know what else to say, except that I am so, so sorry," she added."We profoundly regret the er...