NPRs Alito retirement blunder raises eyebrows after reporters not plausible explanation stuns media world

The strange explanation surrounding NPR’s erroneous story about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s retirement 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.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 ever do, that you were retiring,” Totenberg continued.“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.”NPR was then f...