National Public Radio on Tuesday reported, then quickly retracted, that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring \u2014 a mistake by its veteran court reporter that prompted an apology from the news organization\u2019s executive editor and an entire column by its public editor explaining what happened and how. <\/p>\n
NPR attributed the miscue by reporter Nina Totenberg, on the final day of the court\u2019s session,<\/a> to a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d of a statement by Chief Justice John Roberts that led to previously prepared copy being posted live. The news was also broadcast on NPR. It was live on the organization\u2019s website for about five minutes, though some member stations had it up longer, NPR said. <\/p>\n NPR said it pulled the story after the Supreme Court\u2019s public information office denied the report earlier Tuesday.<\/p>\n An editor\u2019s note posted by some NPR affiliates said: \u201cEarlier today, we erroneously published a story saying that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. Neither Alito nor the court\u2019s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.\u201d<\/p>\n Breaking down the error<\/p>\n Later, a statement from Editor-in-Chief Tommy Evans said NPR regretted the error and the confusion it may have caused. \u201cDue to a misunderstanding, NPR\u2019s Supreme Court and Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg incorrectly reported that Justice Samuel Alito had retired. Neither Justice Alito nor the Supreme Court Public Information Office has announced his retirement,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR\u2019s website and an on-air correction was broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion this may have caused,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n He added that Totenberg would address the issue on Tuesday\u2019s edition of \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d and that she had reached out to Alito to apologize.<\/p>\n