For The Post, a Supreme black eye

It’s one thing to get scooped when your competitors bust their humps. Or when they catch a lucky break one way or another. It’s quite another thing to get scooped when the story has sat in your notebook for 3½ years. And then it goes viral. This very scenario played out in recent weeks for The Post, which has sat back and watched the New York Times nail down a precious exclusive whose epicenter is a leisurely drive from its K Street newsroom. Under the byline of Jodi Kantor, the New York Times reported on May 16 that an upside-down American flag — a symbol popular among pro-Donald Trump election deniers — flew from the pole at the Alito residence after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots — a story with ongoing political and judicial implications. Nine days later, The Post disclosed that then-Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes, who has since retired from The Post, had arrived at the justice’s residence on Jan. 20, 2021, just as the Alitos were leaving home. He spoke to Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, about the flag.