NPR’s Nina Totenberg Castigates NPR’s Public Editor For Disputing SCOTUS Report: ‘She Can Say Any G**damn Thing She Wants’
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National Public Radio’s veteran legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg remained defiant on Thursday as her recent reporting of a mask-wearing scandal at the Supreme Court has come under fire, with even NPR’s own public editor suggesting it merits a “clarification.”
Totenberg grabbed headlines earlier in the week when she reported that Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to wear a mask after Chief Justice John Roberts had “in some form asked the other justices to mask up” in order to protect Justice Sonia Sotomayer, who is diabetic.
After Roberts, Gorsuch, and Sotomayer each released statements debunking the notion that there was a request to mask-up, NPR’s public editor Kelly McBride released a statement saying: “Totenberg’s story merits a clarification, but not a correction. After talking to Totenberg and reading all justices’ statements, I believe her reporting was solid, but her word choice was misleading.”
“She can write any goddamn thing she wants, whether or not I think it’s true,” Totenberg hit back on Thursday night, in an exchange with The Daily Beast, “She’s not clarifying anything!”
“I haven’t even looked at it, and I don’t care to look at it because I report to the news division, she does not report to the news division,” The Beast added, noting that she “laughed” while making the remark.
A public editor’s role at a media organization is to enforce journalistic ethics and standards. McBride’s job description on NPR’s website reads as follows:
McBride was appointed as NPR’s Public Editor in April 2020 as the result of a new partnership between NPR and Poynter. McBride’s role as NPR’s Public Editor is supported by researchers and editors from both organizations, significantly expanding the public editor’s ability to respond to audience concerns and suggestions.
McBride warned in her statement that “NPR risks losing credibility with audience members” as a result of the fallout to Totenberg’s reporting, which had gone viral in conservative circles and led to accusations of bias as the original story reverberated throughout the media.
