NPR retracted a bombshell report on Tuesday that claimed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring after a spokesperson for the judge said the article was wholly inaccurate.
The story, written by Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg, claimed Alito had announced his retirement on Tuesday, when no announcement had actually taken place.
The report was widely circulated on social media based on NPR’s history of reporting credible information in the past, but was quickly fact-checked by other reporters at competing outlets who were trying to confirm the same news.
A spokesperson for Alito’s office said the report was not correct. By Tuesday afternoon, NPR’s Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans issued a statement saying the report was based on a “misunderstanding,” but did not elaborate further.
Evans said Totenberg will appear on “All Things Considered” later in the day to offer more information about how the erroneous story was published.
The issue didn’t just affect NPR’s own website and broadcasts: NPR has a syndication unit that helps its member radio stations republish articles on their own websites. The outlet issued a “kill story” order that demanded those stations remove copies of the articles from their local websites, and worked with some member stations to fulfill the order, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Like other newsrooms, NPR typically has a system in place that requires a news story to undergo a rigorous screening and editing process before it is published or broadcast. It isn’t known if that process was followed here.
Last month, 18 newsroom workers accepted buyouts to leave the organization, and NPR issued pink slips to 10 additional employees. Among those who departed the news organization were Don Gonyea, NPR’s national politics correspondent; Vickie Walton-James, a managing editor; and investigative reporter Joe Shapiro.
The job losses followed a decision by Congress last year to pull funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which has largely impacted NPR member stations in small and rural communities. NPR relies on fees collected from those stations to fund its operations; in a statement, NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher said the outlet expects to lose as much as $15 million this year due to lower income from member station fees.
The erroneous NPR story broke during a busy week for the Supreme Court and correspondents covering it: The court is in the process of issuing dozens of opinions on cases heard over the past few months, and has already published orders on matters related to the president’s ability to fire federal officials and the constitutionality of an Executive Order signed last year affecting birthright citizenship.
