politics
NPR Retracts Report Claiming Justice Samuel Alito Is Retiring
NPR published and then withdrew a story stating that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had retired. The network later said the report was published in error.
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NPR published a story on Tuesday headlined "Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the opinion overturning Roe v. Columbia Journalism Review reported that she used several paragraphs and verbatim quotes from a Washington Post story without attribution. Totenberg told the review she had been in a hurry and used "terrible judgment," adding that she should have credited the Post.
In 1987, a Legal Times reporter said Totenberg's story about a Supreme Court nominee's resume bore an "alarming resemblance" to information he had shared with her but did not receive credit.
1992, Totenberg drew criticism from Republican senators after she read portions of Anita Hill's confidential affidavit on NPR during coverage of Clarence Thomas's Supreme Court nomination. In 1995, she faced criticism after suggesting Republican Sen.
Jesse Helms would "get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it" in response to his proposal to cut AIDS research funding. Totenberg wrote an obituary for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2020 that disclosed the two had been close friends during Ginsburg's time on the court.
The Washington Post later published an article questioning whether the relationship created a conflict of interest. In 2022, NPR reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch had refused to wear a mask despite requests from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Fox News reported that a Supreme Court source stated there had been no blanket request from Chief Justice John Roberts for justices to wear masks and that Sotomayor had not asked Gorsuch to do so.
