WASHINGTON — NPR retracted a story Tuesday announcing the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
The formerly publicly funded outlet posted the story by longtime legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg moments after the Supreme Court finished its 2025-26 term, and cited a statement from the press office.
However, no such announcement was made, nor did Alito make any comment from the bench about his future.
“NPR’s reporting regarding Justice Alito is inaccurate. And their reporting that there was any kind of court statement is inaccurate,” court spokesperson Patricia McCabe told Politico in a statement.
NPR Editor in Chief Tommy Evans later admitted that the inaccurate report was published “[d]ue to a misunderstanding.”
“As soon as the error was realized, the story was retracted and removed from NPR’s website and an on-air correction was broadcast,” Evans added, noting that Totenberg had “reached out to Justice Alito to apologize.”
Podcast host Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, erupted in an X post: “This is why you can’t trust the Legacy Media. Published a totally fake story.”
Totenberg, 82, has worked at NPR since 1975 and has repeatedly won praise for her reporting on the inner workings of the Supreme Court. She established a decades-long friendship with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who officiated Totenberg’s second wedding in 2000.
Following Ginsburg’s death in 2020, Totenberg and NPR were criticized — including by the outlet’s then-public editor, Kelly McBride — for not being more forthcoming about her friendship with Ginsburg earlier.
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Alito, 76, joined the high court in 2006 as an appointee of former President George W. Bush, filling the vacancy caused by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Trump nominated three justices who were confirmed to the Supreme Court during his first term — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
If Alito retired, the 47th president would get a fourth pick, the most of any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Last year, Congress yanked more than $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partially funds NPR. President Trump had previously issued an executive order to revoke its taxpayer funding.
That dealt a blow to local stations that pay NPR for programming, even though the outlet admitted direct federal grants accounted for fewer than 1% of its budget.
NPR relies on fees from those member stations, many of which are under severe financial strain since the federal funding was pulled, though the freeze will only remain in effect for a two-year period
