National Public Radio formally retracted a major news story on Tuesday after mistakenly reporting that U. S.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring.
The public broadcasting organization removed the 1,200-word piece written by legal correspondent Nina Totenberg and replaced it with a brief statement clarifying the error.
"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," stated the NPR editor's note.
The initial report had claimed to base its information on a specific official notice from the judiciary, though no such statement had actually been issued.
A representative for the nation's highest court quickly disputed the validity of the broadcast network's article.
"NPR's reporting regarding Justice Alito is inaccurate," said Patricia McCabe, a spokesperson for the court.
The judicial spokesperson further clarified that the organization falsely claimed a document had been released.
"Their reporting that there was any kind of court statement is inaccurate," McCabe noted.
Following the public pushback, the top editorial leadership at the media network addressed the mistake later that day.
NPR top editor Thomas Evans attributed the publication of the incorrect report to a "misunderstanding."
Evans released an official corporate statement detailing the operational breakdown and outlining the corrective measures taken by the network.
"Due to a misunderstanding, NPR's Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired," said Evans.
The executive confirmed that the reporter intended to apologize directly to the justice for the false reporting.
"Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement.
As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR's website and an on-air correction was broadcast.
We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused. This afternoon, Mrs. Totenberg will appear on All Things Considered to explain what happened.
She has reached out to Justice Alito to apologize," added Evans.
The retracted article itself contained extensive background text prepared for Alito's eventual departure, summarizing his legacy as a conservative leader on the bench.
Unfinished editorial elements and typographical errors inside the text indicated that the pre-written draft was accidentally published ahead of time.
