Posted on 07/01/2026 5:47:31 PM PDT by DoodleBob
NPR’s legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg went on “All Things Considered” Tuesday to take full accountability and apologize for falsely reporting that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring.
“I scared everybody half to death for about five minutes, and it was — it’s entirely on me, it’s not anybody else’s fault,” Totenberg said.
NPR quickly retracted a story early Tuesday after mistakenly reporting that Justice Alito was retiring. The justice was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush in October 2005.
The story has since been replaced by an editor’s note which states: “Earlier today we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. He has not announced his retirement and we have retracted the story.”
Totenberg, a tenured journalist who has worked at NPR for over 50 years, explained that she made an inaccurate assumption that the court was making retirement announcements after she rushed out early and misheard. She called the mistake the worst of her career.
She also revealed that she wrote directly to Justice Alito to apologize for the incident, and proceeded to read the full letter on air.
“Dear Justice Alito: There are no words to adequately apologize for today’s error in reporting your retirement. It was entirely my fault. 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 assumed — something no reporter should ever do — that you were retiring,” she wrote.
“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.”
“And I am, eternally,” the 82-year-old reporter added. “This was a rookie mistake.”
Totenberg said that she had not heard back from the justice and did not expect to, but she believed it was important to own up to mistakes in the same way she would want the people she reports on to.
“We in the press corps always want people to own up to their mistakes, and they most of the time don’t,” she said. “So I’m not going to do that. This is on me, and only me.”
NPR editor-in-chief Thomas Evans was also brought on to address what went wrong in the editorial process that lead to the false report getting published.
“Nina was incredibly gracious there, but the truth is, it’s as editor in chief, I feel ultimate responsibility for anything that NPR is reporting,” Evans said. “We are trying to be a nimble news organization during breaking news and still be correct at all times, and this is something that we should learn from and go back and figure out where we could do better and be better.”
“I think most importantly, we need to be honest with our audience and honest with the listeners, that when we make a mistake. We own up to it,” he added.
The editor-in-chief did not further specify why the report went out without being checked by another member of the editorial staff. Totenberg then brought the attention back to herself saying she was the only person at the court, so she should fall on the sword.
“I’ve seen people make big mistakes because they weren’t sitting in the courtroom,” she said. “I knew we had a special, and I left early, and that is also on me. You should never leave these people early. It’s very gracious of the network and Tommy to get me off the hook, but there’s no getting me off the hook.”
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This was no rookie mistake. And it’s yore second (of which we’re aware).
She may be the most loathsome human being in the media. And that’s saying something.
What about the Hugh Latina? When is her expiration date?
If the huge Latina drops tomorrow we could pull another Merrick Garland and let the voters decide in November. Empty seat. We’re still ahead 6-3. What could Trump get out of it? Probably nothing. If they’re willing to play Trump could give it to Hillary. Her only job will be to stay alive for 2 years. Let them sweat it out. Bill will be happy she’s out of the house.
Someone in the Scotus leaked to Totenkopf.
Probably the same leaker of Dobbs.
Perhaps a setup by Alito.
Just asking.
Maybe she'll get the hang of her job eventually.
What’s a “plagarist”?
That's a real apology and should be accepted...
As someone else alluded, she was likely told this by a staffer or justice and it was to see who was leaking to the media.
Nina is profusely apologizing to help her source retain their position.
A plagarist is a plagiarist when it’s spelled properly.
DOH!
Whatever you do don’t type Nina Totenberg and Bill Clinton into a Search Engine.
We aren’t ahead 6-3. It’s 3-4-2.
I copied and pasted that into a search engine. All I got were Wikipedia articles and repeats of the Alito story.
Totenberg has been wired in deeply at the Supreme Court for decades now, so it’s doubtful that she just made up the claim about Alito.
More likely it was the same kind of water cooler scuttlebutt that happens in every workplace at some level. You know, who’s leaving home, having an affair, going on vacation, retiring, pissed off at the company, etc.
Somebody overheard talk of or by Alito with the word “retirement” in it and dropped a dime on Nina.
Now what would this ‘accountability’ she speaks of be? For most people, such a rookie mistake would be that they are out the door. BTW...insiders like Totenberg don’t make mistakes...this was intentional.
She should be suspended and fined or fired.
How would she feel if someone announced that she had molested a child? Then retracted it 10 minutes later with an ‘oops, my bad’?
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