In an era in which everyone’s a media critic, Nina Totenberg has been getting some exceptionally rough reviews lately. NPR’s veteran Supreme Court watcher last week reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch refuses to wear a mask while sitting next to liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is diabetic, thus causing Sotomayor to participate remotely in the court’s deliberations.
To the delight of the right, a detail in Totenberg’s story — that Chief Justice John Roberts “in some form or other, asked” the justices to mask up for Sotomayor’s benefit, and that Gorsuch defied him — is in dispute. The sound and fury around that one word, “asked,” is blurring what seems to be the bigger question: Is Gorsuch really refusing to wear a mask to the point of driving his colleague out of the room? That particular question remains conspicuously unanswered.
Gorsuch and Sotomayor issued a joint statement denying that Sotomayor had asked Gorsuch to mask up. But, in fact, Totenberg’s story didn’t claim that Sotomayor had personally made such a request. More problematic is Roberts’ public statement asserting that he did not “request” that justices wear masks. It was a terse, short statement without elaboration, and Totenberg’s defenders were quick to point out that it didn’t preclude the possibility that Roberts encouraged mask use with something less than a specific request (suggest? hint? indicate?). Indeed, the tentative wording in Totenberg’s report indicates she herself wasn’t clear on whether this was a directive, a request, or something milder.
