The backstory behind the false rumor of Chief Justice John Roberts stepping down from the Supreme Court — initially reported (and then retracted) by Radar, and covered by us here, here, and here — continues to pick up mainstream media mentions as well. See, e.g., the Los Angeles Times and NPR.
We stand by our primary claim that this gossip arose out of Professor Peter Tague’s criminal law class at Georgetown Law, in which he tried to teach his students a lesson about the credibility and reliability of informants. But we would like to retract one aspect of our earlier coverage. We wrote:
Note the timestamps on the Radar posts. The first one came out at 6:10 a.m., i.e., the Pacific Time equivalent of 9:10 a.m. Eastern time. The retraction came out at 6:36 a.m., i.e., the Pacific Time equivalent of 9:36 a.m. Eastern — shortly after Professor Tague let his class in on the joke.
We now believe that the time stamps on the Radar post bear little or no relation to reality. David Perel, Executive Vice President of RadarOnline.com, admitted as much to Gawker, when he described the timestamps as “off.”
For those of you who are interested, we have a few more thoughts on the exact timing of events here.
We believe the first Radar item was published sometime around 12:30 PM Eastern Time on Thursday. Here’s why.
To the best of our knowledge, Nico Pitney, senior news editor of the Huffington Post, was the first to tweet about the Radar report, at 12:42 PM, and to blog about it, at 1:03 PM. We received the first of many ATL reader emails forwarding the first Radar link at 12:46 PM.
How did Nico Pitney first learn about the item? He told us he received it at around 12:35 PM, via an email blast from Radar:
From: Krasnow, Andrea [of Radar Online]
Date: Thu, Mar 4, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Subject: RadarOnline.com EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Considering Stepping Down
To: [bcc'd recipients that included Nico Pitney]RadarOnline.com EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Considering Stepping Down
[Text of original Radar item.]
Accordingly, we do not think the first Radar item was published at 6:10 AM, which is what the time stamp claims, or even 9:10 AM, which would have been the East Coast equivalent of 6:10 AM Pacific time. It would make no sense for Radar to send out an email blast at 12:35 PM about an item published at 6:10 AM (and retracted at 6:36 AM, again taking the Radar timestamps as accurate).
As Kash previously noted, Radar added an “update” to its original item at approximately 1:45 PM Eastern time. So we believe that maybe an hour or an hour and a half elapsed between the original Radar post and the appending of the update to the original post.
What explains this gap? Probably not Professor Tague letting his students in on his pedagogically-motivated prank, since he had done that hours ago. We speculate — and again, take this for what it’s worth, since it’s just speculation — that Radar’s original source did not immediately tell Radar upon learning that the rumor was false.
It could be that Radar’s source had the item secondhand, from a friend or family member in Professor Tague’s class, and so did not even know the item was false until later. Or it could be that Radar had two different sources — one for the original item, and one for the retraction.
But this is all speculation — and if we’ve learned any lesson from this episode, it’s about the danger of uninformed speculation. So let’s leave it at that.
P.S. Other than the brief comment to Gawker, admitting their time stamps were “off,” the Radar folks — who are in the best position to unravel this whole mess — have remained silent.
Earlier: Everybody Learns A Lesson from Georgetown Professor Peter Tague
Anatomy of a Rumor: The Story Behind Chief Justice John Roberts’s ‘Retirement’
ATL Exclusive: John Roberts Is Still Chief Justice!
This is what, story #4 on this? Seriously? Let it die.
Also, first.
Bore. Ing.
1 and 2 – We’re just wanted to retract our (apparently incorrect) speculation on the timeline. This will (probably) be our last post on this.
Thanks for reading on this Friday evening!
First!!!!!!
I find it really interesting, but then again I don’t claim to have a life. Great work, David & Kash.
ATL: “HAY REMEMBER WHEN WE DIDN’T REPORT ON THIS GOSSIP?11!? HERE’S YOUR 4TH REMINDER JUST FYI.”
The best way to remedy incorrect speculation is with more speculation.
Looking forward to your exclusives on the Roethlisberger sex assault.
Stop wasting time on this story and get on the late-breaking developments in the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern thread.
Happy Birthday, Kash!
Inside baseball.
Lat, wanna bang later and then figure out how to fix your website?
Holla at me, dog.
Gil Grissom
PH NY secretary here. Mary Jane’s weapon of choice is the video camera. She’s been hauling in secretaries to confront them over 5 minutes of lateness all according to the videotape. What a fucking cunt.
Lat, well done on this story. I think you guys have demonstrated that you have some of the best tipsters in the legal community. Your post on the source of the rumor was a scoop of a great story, and it’s commendable that you followed up on it with corrections.
I have made comments critical of ATL in the past, so I can assure you I have no agenda to stroke Lat’s ego (by the way, can you both stoke and stroke an ego?). But let’s admit we all read this everyday to get stuff like this.
That being said, I second 8; we need more on R & G.
God damn, how many times are you going to jerk yourself off to your own failure to report on this rumor as it was happening, Lat? This is getting unbelievable.
11 – Just FYI, the writers — myself, Elie, and Kash — have no control whatsoever over technology issues for the site. It’s like blaming David Brooks when the NYT website is slow to load. That’s outside his jurisdiction.
14 – The point of this post is not to pat ourselves on the back for not falling for this rumor — we already did that, in case you hadn’t noticed — but to correct one of our own mistakes, concerning the timeline of events. Rather than gloating about being right, we are trying to fix something we got wrong.
P.S. Jerking oneself off on a Friday night = A good start to the weekend.
who cares about all this timing crap? really. get over yourselves.
aAPPARENTLY, ROETHISBERGER IS A MOLESTER
Lat, well done on this story. I think you guys have demonstrated that you have some of the best tipsters in the legal community.
Real Estate Law Temecula
“The point of this post is not to pat ourselves on the back for not falling for this rumor — we already did that, in case you hadn’t noticed…”
Oh, don’t worry Lat, I noticed. And that’s why I think you’re F’ing pathetic. This was maybe the one time – ever – that you (and by you I mean Elie) didn’t fall all over yourself copy+pasting a rumor/story/whatever from another site that you were slow to get wind of, and you act like you’re a saint for it. Just be silently thankful that your server problems *actually prevented you* from posting the story when it broke, making you look like you have journalistic caution for the first time in your site’s history. Then shut up and move on.
19 – Our site was actually working reasonably well on that day. We had the ability to publish the story but did not (because we were checking with our sources).
Why do you have to be so… hostile? Life is too short. Go have yourself a beer.
And if you don’t like our site, feeling that it is pathetic and full of self-congratulation, then don’t read it. It really is that simple. There are many sites on the internet that I don’t like. I don’t read them (instead of wasting my time posting critical comments on them).
Enjoy your weekend.
21, your comment made me laugh out loud.
19 is the straight guy who fantasized about Lat and was mortally wounded when Lat rebuffed his drunken email solicitations sent under the guise of a “tip”.
At its best, ATL is a good source of information. At its worst, it’s an amusing tabloid type of affair. Anyone who gets all bent out of shape about the content of ATL is a fucking loser. And by “anyone” I mean 19.
Lat,
Your lack of control over the technological issues might not be within your “jurisdiction,” but you’re the only one we have to complain to.
And it’s getting ridiculous. Passing the buck doesn’t help you make lots of money by having us visit your website.
So let’s put some pressure on whoever’s jurisdiction it is to get it fixed, for all of our sakes.
Wow, Lat really has her panties in a bunch. Who pissed on your chips, hon?
Some asshole pulled the fire alarm in the middle of the Philly MPRE today at UPenn
No more on this non-story please.
Folks, if you are bored with a story, why did you read it and take the time to comment on it?
I agree. Plus I am tired of seeing the side view of Chief Justice Roberts’ face.
John Roberts ain’t shit.
His MOTHER ain’t shit.
If I had a dollar for every time he jerked off Reagan and Rehnquist I could pay off my damn student loans. Maybe next time he swears in a President his dumbass won’t botch it. Only thing that could have made that worse would have been pullin’ a Cheney and faking a back injury.
I failed the MPRE today.
30 – thanks for making it worthwhile to read to the end of the comments.
Guys! Guys! I heard this thing…
John Roberts is going to RETIRE! Yeah, you hear that right. RETIRE!
That means that Obama gets to pick the next Supreme Court Chief Justice! Can you believe it???!!
—————–
What kind of stupid people are we creating in this world?
Geez. One would think that only smart people go to GU. But one would be wrong.
“We did not initially report it here, after checking with our sources and encountering extreme skepticism.” (previous post)
Fact checking… or consistently lagging other outlets by 18-36 hours whilst devouring boxes of jelly donuts. Blame the jelly stains on Elie’s keyboard, not your purported journalistic instincts and work ethic.
Did anyone hear about Roberts getting caught alone in a mens room on his knees with black guy?
35 – actually, since he’s an old school anti-gay Republican, that is clearly within the realm of the possible (or even probable).
The fallacy in GU professor’s thesis is that a law professor should be considered a trustworthy source. Personally, I would sooner trust a homeless person with my wallet than a law professor. Law professors are lazy scum.
The strategy in his feces is all wrong. Feces.
I love how people think it takes meaningful time to make an asinine comment on ATL.