Tag Archives: prebutting

SPJ ethics leaders comment on Alito’s preemptive rebuttal

The Wall Street Journal published an essay written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, titled “ProPublica Misleads Its Readers,” on June 20. Alito’s essay has been considered an unusual step of “prebutting” a ProPublica article that hadn’t been published yet. The ProPublica article investigates Alito accepting gifts from major GOP donor Paul Singer. The preemptive rebuttal has brought into question the ethics of publishing a defense when the original article hasn’t been published yet.

In an article