NPR To Offer Gavel-To-Gavel Coverage And Daily Wrap-Up Program Of Samuel Alito Confirmation Hearing

Nina Totenberg and Neal Conan to Host Daytime Coverage, Linda Wertheimer to Host Evening Program to be Both Broadcast and Podcast

Coverage Marks Totenberg’s 19th Assignment Reporting On Supreme Court Justice Confirmation Hearings

Washington, D.C. – Starting Monday, January 9, 2006, NPR continues its longstanding tradition of offering gavel-to-gavel broadcasting and analysis of the Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings with coverage of the Judge Samuel Alito hearings.

NPR will again offer a one-hour summary program each evening reviewing the day’s events, available as both a broadcast to NPR member stations around the country as well as an NPR Podcast.

On location from the Capitol, NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg and Neal Conan, host of NPR’s daily news-talk show Talk of the Nation, will provide the daytime reporting and commentary on the hearings to confirm Alito as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The special daily coverage will be streamed live on www.NPR.org and is available to NPR stations across the country to broadcast or to stream from their Web sites. NPR.org will also cover the hearings with daily online analysis.

Linda Wertheimer, NPR Senior National Correspondent, will host the nightly one-hour program featuring highlights of the day’s testimony. The evening wrap-up will be archived on NPR.org for streaming on demand and available as an NPR Podcast each night at 11PM (ET). NPR inaugurated its nightly Supreme Court wrap-up podcasts during its September 2005 coverage of John Roberts’ hearings and these immediately landed on the iTunes Top 100 list.

Alito’s testimony marks the 19th Supreme Court confirmation hearing to be covered by Totenberg, the multi-award-winning correspondent. Her reporting began with the confirmation of Abe Fortas and encompasses all current Court Justices.

NPR News’ special gavel-to-gavel coverage is produced by Neal Carruth, who also produced NPR’s special coverage of the confirmation hearings of Chief Justice John Roberts. The editor is Barbara Campbell. NPR’s nightly one-hour wrap-up program is produced by JJ Sutherland and edited by Marcus Rosenbaum.

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Susan Bluttman

NPR

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