NPR reporter explains retracted story on Alito’s retirement

Media NPR reporter explains retracted story on Alito’s retirement by Tara Suter - 06/30/26 8:26 PM ET Link copied by Tara Suter - 06/30/26 8:26 PM ET Link copied

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NPR journalist Nina Totenberg on Tuesday discussed the events leading up to a story from the outlet about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito retiring that was later retracted.

NPR said in an editor’s note Tuesday that it had put out a report that day about Alito retiring, adding that “neither Alito nor the court’s public information office has announced his retirement, and we have retracted the story.”

On NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Totenberg said that she wrote a letter addressed to the justice in which she apologized for the story and said the events surrounding it were “entirely on me.”

“Dear Justice Alito, there are no words to adequately apologize for today’s error in reporting your retirement. It was entirely my fault. I rushed out of the courtroom after the opinion announced — announcements, and when I realized that the usual rush of folks after a few minutes had not happened, I asked somebody what was going on inside, to which the answer was retirement announcements,” Totenberg said, reading the letter out loud.

“I didn’t hear the ‘s’ on announcements, and assumed something no reporter should ever do, that you were retiring. It was the worst professional mistake of my more than 50 years in journalism. I could go on, but I don’t know what else to say, except that I am so, so sorry.”

Alito, 76, has been on the court for a little more than two decades, after President George W. Bush nominated him for the role. He is part of the court’s conservative bloc, alongside Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.

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