The Washington Post revealed Saturday that the paper did not initially cover a 2021 story about Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s flag issues because a former reporter for the Supreme Court had clashed with the justice’s wife over the issue.
“The Post decided not to cover the incident at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha Ann Alito, not the judge, and it had to do with a dispute with a neighbor.” Washington Post report Quoting a spokesman for the paper, he said: “It was not clear at the time whether the discussion was politically rooted.”
Robert Burns, a former Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post, visited the Alitos’ home in 2021 after being provided with information about the flag. According to the Post, Alito’s wife, Martha Ann, shouted “It’s an international distress signal” after being asked about the flag by a reporter.
As first reported by The New York Times last week, in the weeks after the Jan. 6 riot, an upside-down American flag – a symbol used by supporters of the former president to falsely claim that Biden did not win the 2020 election – was seen flying at Alito’s home.
The Washington Post clarified Saturday that it did not run Justice Alito’s 2021 story about the flag. (Left: (Photo by Erin Shaff Pool/Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Oliver Contreras/Courtesy of The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Alito claims wife flew flag upside down after argument with offensive neighbor
Alito previously told Fox News that it was his wife who put up the flag in response to insults from neighbors.
Former editor-in-chief Cameron Barr accepted responsibility for not publishing the story at the time. According to Semaphore.
“I agreed. [Supreme Court reporter] “Bob Burns and other reporters argued that we shouldn’t write a front-page story about the flag because it seemed to be about Martha Ann Alito and not about her husband,” Barr told the outlet.
Semaphore called the decision “careful and respectful and very pre-Dobbs” and suggested it takes on even more meaning now that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has overturned Roe v. Wade.
“It’s unimaginable now,” the outlet wrote.
Members of the media and leading Democrats have called on Justice Alito to recuse himself from all cases related to Donald Trump that are before the Supreme Court, in a move that conservatives say is bluster and part of a broader effort to delegitimize the court.
FILE – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr., left, and his wife, Martha Ann Alito, pay their respects at the casket of the Rev. Billy Graham in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Feb. 28, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
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“In retrospect, I should have been more forceful in that article,” Barr told Semaphore.
Alito’s wife reportedly instructed a Washington Post reporter to ask the neighbor what he had done and told the reporter to leave the property.
Days after the initial report, The New York Times reported that another symbol flown by Trump supporters, the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, was seen flying at Alito’s beach house in New Jersey. The flag, also known as the Pine Tree Flag, dates back to the Revolutionary War.
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