NPR found itself at the centre of a significant editorial embarrassment after publishing a pre-written retirement story about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito before he had actually retired.
The story, which carried Nina Totenberg’s byline, appeared immediately after the conclusion of the Supreme Court’s term, complete with a retrospective on Alito’s long tenure on the bench.
The error was spotted quickly, with the photo caption proving to be a telling giveaway before readers had even reached the body of the story.
The caption read: “Justice Samuel Alito, seen here in April 2021, retired Friday” — a line that appeared to be placeholder text left in from a pre-prepared draft.
The problem, of course, was that as of the story’s publication, Alito had not announced any retirement from the Supreme Court.
NPR’s editor-in-chief Thomas Evans confirmed the blunder in a statement sent to Forbes, saying Totenberg “incorrectly reported” Alito’s retirement.
Evans said the story was removed “as soon as the error was realized” and that NPR also issued an on-air correction to address the mistake publicly.
Totenberg was set to appear on NPR’s “All Things Considered” that afternoon to explain the situation to listeners, according to Evans.
Evans also confirmed that Totenberg had personally apologised to Justice Alito following the erroneous publication of the premature retirement report.
The incident drew widespread attention given the significance of any Supreme Court retirement, which would trigger a high-stakes nomination process in an already deeply divided political climate.
Pre-written obituaries and retirement notices are a standard practice in journalism, allowing outlets to move quickly when major figures announce departures or pass away, but the accidental publication of such drafts represents a serious editorial failure.
The Supreme Court term had only just concluded when the story went live, a moment when speculation about potential retirements from the bench tends to run particularly high in Washington.
Alito, one of the court’s most senior and consistently conservative justices, has been a prominent and often controversial figure throughout his time on the bench.
The episode serves as a sharp reminder of the risks involved in maintaining ready-to-publish content on high-profile figures, particularly when publication workflows can be triggered prematurely.