Reporter Says Alito Retirement Blunder Was 'Rookie Mistake'

Nina Totenberg is calling it the biggest blunder of her half-century career, and it began with one misheard word at the Supreme Court. The longtime NPR legal affairs correspondent apologized Tuesday after incorrectly reporting that Justice Samuel Alito was stepping down—an error that briefly set off a frenzy in other newsrooms before a court spokesperson knocked it down, per CNN. "I scared everybody half to death for about five minutes," Totenberg said on NPR's "All Things Considered," stressing the "rookie mistake" is "entirely on me."

Totenberg read the apology she emailed to Alito, explaining that she rushed out of the courtroom to join live coverage and was then told "retirement announcements" were underway inside—only she thought she heard the word "announcement" and wrongly assumed Alito's departure. She then alerted editors, who published her prewritten Alito retirement story, as NPR's public editor later wrote. Chief Justice John Roberts had, in fact, been announcing the retirement of several court employees, justices excluded, the AP reports.

The mistake has fueled speculation over whether Alito is considering retirement, something Totenberg did not address. She said she had not received a response from the justice. NPR's editor-in-chief said the outlet has safeguards for breaking news but would "learn from" the incident. According to Poynter's Tom Jones, because the file cited a public announcement, rather than anonymous sources, NPR did not "take additional steps" to verify the accuracy of Totenberg's reporting—a potentially costly mistake "in an era when trust in media has never been lower."