NPR Reporter Apologizes To Justice Samuel Alito After Falsely Reporting His Retirement
Amy & T.J.
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg wrote a formal apology to Justice Samuel Alito for publishing a report about his retirement, saying she was “so, so sorry.” It was a shocking headline that was up for only a few minutes before it was replaced with a note from the editor saying the article was “published in error.” NPR explained Totenberg misheard an announcement at the Supreme Court, Totenberg saying “it was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.0 | Hey there, folks. |
| 0:07.0 | It is Wednesday, July 1st. |
| 0:09.7 | And there were a lot of huge headlines coming out of the Supreme Court this week. |
| 0:16.1 | None bigger than the headline that said Justice Samuel Alito was retiring. |
| 0:22.8 | It was wrong. |
| 0:24.4 | Welcome to this episode of Amy and T.J. |
| 0:26.5 | Ropes, mistakes like this in media this big are rare. |
| 0:31.7 | To hear the reasons why it was made for folks like you and me who've been in the industry for decades, three |
| 0:39.5 | decades, a piece almost. We're confused at hell. |
| 0:43.0 | This is inexplicable, and considering the source, it's even more shocking because this |
| 0:48.8 | was a false headline generated mistakenly by NPR. |
| 0:55.3 | Groves, that's NPR. |
| 0:56.7 | That's a big mistake to make. |
| 0:58.0 | That's a huge. |
| 0:59.6 | Samuel Alito, just given the times, given all that we're in, given the heightened political |
| 1:06.8 | dilemma that we find ourselves and have been in, given how big their decisions are to hear that |
| 1:14.0 | any Supreme Court justice is retiring. Robs is some of the biggest breaking news you're going to |
| 1:19.1 | happen. Oh, it's earth-shattering news to hear. And it rarely happens where you hear about a |
| 1:24.8 | Supreme Court justice either stepping down because a lot of times, |
| 1:27.8 | these are lifetime appointments. So it's not something that we even anticipate, let alone |
... |
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