The strange explanation surrounding NPR’s erroneous story about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito retiring has raised more questions about the journalism debacle. NPR was forced to retract a story Tuesday by legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, who wrongly reported that Alito was retiring.NPR published the story headlined, "Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v.
Wade, retires," but quickly replaced it with an editor’s note insisting it was "erroneously published." NPR top editor Thomas Evans issued a statement calling the botched report a "misunderstanding," and said Totenberg would appear on "All Things Considered" to explain how the gaffe occurred. NPR RETRACTS FALSE REPORT CLAIMING JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO IS RETIRING FROM THE SUPREME COURTNPR's Nina Totenberg, seen here in 2015, stunned the media world with an erroneous report about the retirement of Justice Samuel Alito from the Supreme Court.(Andrew Burton/Getty Images)But NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride addressed the situation before Totenberg appeared on-air and wrote that Totenberg "misheard" an announcement by Chief Justice John Roberts and simply thought he said Alito was retiring. Totenberg then appeared on "All Things Considered" Tuesday and provided a different explanation for the "rookie mistake" that contradicted her own public editor.
The 82-year-old Totenberg, who has been a working journalist for over five decades, read a letter she wrote to Alito apologizing for the mistake."Dear Justice Alito, there are no words to adequately apologize for today's error in reporting your retirement.It was entirely my fault," Totenberg 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 what 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 e...