ATL Says Law Prof May Have Sparked False Rumor of Chief Justice's Retirement
An exclusive “news” report briefly posted on the Radar Online gossip blog this morning—that U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is about to announce his retirement—was soon followed by another “exclusive” report a short time later that Roberts is going to stay on the bench.
But what’s most interesting about the wild rumor quickly fueled by other blogs and still boomeranging around the Internet is what may have sparked it:
A Georgetown University law professor announced the pending Roberts “retirement” to his class at around 9 a.m. today, says Above the Law, relying on accounts from unidentified individuals who apparently are students in the class. Then, at about 9:30 a.m., the prof explained that this wasn’t true and his statement was part of an exercise intended to demonstrate to his criminal law class the unreliability of evidence.
Meanwhile, of course, students in the first-year class presumably e-mailed others about the Roberts “retirement” news, notes the ATL post. The original Radar claim that Roberts was about to retire went up at 6:10 a.m. West Coast time (which is, of course, 9:10 a.m. to those in the criminal law class), and the what ATL terms a “retraction” by Radar Online went up at 6:36 a.m.
Both ATL and the ABA Journal attempted to reach the Georgetown professor without success.
Assuming, based on the “wild implausibility” of the claim and the source, that the Radar post about Roberts’ pending retirement probably wasn’t correct, most media outlets—including Above the Law—didn’t report on the Radar claim, according to New York Magazine in its Daily Intel blog.
However, some did: It apparently took the Huffington Post hours to note Radar’s about-face, for instance, during which time the Off the Record blog of the Greensboro News & Record, citing the Huffington Post article, noted the retirement claim.
“It doesn’t look like a credible source for that ‘exclusive’ information—update: it wasn’t,” the newspaper added late today—“but who knows? Stranger things have happened.”
A Drudge Report link and a brief mention on Fox News also fueled the false rumor of Roberts’ planned resignation, reports Mediaite.
Additional coverage:
Associated Press: “A Roberts rumor’s blip on Washington’s radar”
Business Insider: “The Real Reason For The Justice Roberts Is Leaving Rumor: A 1L Is Dumb”
Life News: “Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Not Stepping Down, Report False”
