Just days after NPR was publicly embarrassed for publishing a pre-written article falsely announcing the retirement of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the Hill published an article detailing the life of Sen. Mitch McConnell after health concerns arose from a a lengthy hospital stay for the long-time Republican senator.
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The Hill publishes premature article titled “DO NOT USE: A lookback at Mitch McConnell’s time in the Senate” amid rumors over McConnell’s health
Screenshot credit: @TNOQuoProQuid pic.twitter.com/HwY3mserLJ
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 6, 2026
To make matters worse, the headline for the article featured a tag in all capitals instructing staff to “DO NOT USE.” Somehow, the seemingly airtight security measure against publishing pre-written articles didn’t hold up. Worse still, a copy of the article remained live on Yahoo for an extended period past the removal of the article from the Hill’s website.
The copy is still up on Yahoo News
Link to article: https://t.co/SAPfCvshLX https://t.co/9lNOSoxYWz pic.twitter.com/PmRkQK9xJz
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) July 6, 2026
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Many took the opportunity to poke fun at the Hill and NPR for their lax editorial practices that made the errors possible.
Published-too-early pre-writes are having a renaissance right now https://t.co/Bh4tSNXMhZ
— Brad Johnson (@bradj_TX) July 7, 2026
THEY USED https://t.co/JMmW7wbxqT
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) July 7, 2026
The question remains, which outlet will be the next to errantly “break” news that never happened?
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