A bogus report claiming Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had retired sent shockwaves across the political world Tuesday morning before NPR was forced to issue a humiliating retraction.
The left-leaning outlet’s veteran Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg, 82, published the fabricated story at 10:51 a.m. ET, breathlessly announcing that one of the most conservative justices in modern history was leaving the bench. The article’s own photo caption contradicted the headline, claiming Alito had retired on Friday rather than Tuesday.
Social media erupted within minutes as conservatives and liberals alike scrambled to confirm whether President Donald Trump would have the opportunity to nominate a fourth justice to the nation’s highest court before November’s midterm elections. But no announcement came from the Supreme Court. Because there was nothing to announce.
NPR pulled the entire story, leaving only a terse editor’s note in its place: “Earlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. Neither Alito nor the court’s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.”
The outlet’s Editor in Chief Tommy Evans later attempted damage control, blaming a “misunderstanding” for the false report.
“Due to a misunderstanding, NPR’s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired,” Evans said. “As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast.”
Evans added that Totenberg has reached out to Alito personally to apologize for the fake news story and will appear on NPR’s “All Things Considered” to explain herself.
The fake story claimed Alito was departing “right after justices handed down landmark cases on transgender athletes and birthright citizenship,” framing the timing as significant. The now-retracted piece opened with this fabricated lede: “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced Tuesday.”
The court announced no such thing.
Alito, 76, has given no formal indication he plans to step down from the Supreme Court. However, a recent hospitalization and the growing possibility that Republicans could lose control of the Senate have intensified speculation about potential vacancies on the high court.
For now, Justice Alito remains on the bench. And NPR remains a taxpayer-funded outlet that just published fake news about one of the most consequential courts in American history.
