Supreme Court · The Atlantic Technology
According to an archived copy, available on the Wayback Machine, the 1,186-word story was published at 10:51 a.m. eastern time
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NPR, to its credit, quickly retracted the story, issued a correction, and apologized.
Key facts
- According to an archived copy, available on the Wayback Machine, the 1,186-word story was published at 10:51 a.m. eastern time
- NPR, to its credit, quickly retracted the story, issued a correction, and apologized
- At least one publication— Vox —followed NPR’s reporting and also had to retract a story
- NPR’s public editor, Kelly McBride, wrote this afternoon that Totenberg had listened to Chief Justice John Roberts announcing retirements at the Court and misheard the statement
Summary
It was all a “misunderstanding.” That’s the word that NPR Editor in Chief Thomas Evans used to describe why, today, the outlet erroneously published a report by the veteran Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. So what happened here? According to McBride, much of the story had been prewritten in anticipation of Alito announcing retirement. But, in attempting to document the fallout from the NPR story, the reporter is struck by how little there was. A few explanations seem to exist for this: First, NPR’s quick retraction makes it harder to spin a convoluted conspiracy theory.