Jonathan Franklin
Jonathan Franklin is a digital reporter on the News desk covering general assignment and breaking national news.
For the last few years, Franklin has been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news in the nation's capital. Prior to NPR, he served as a digital multiskilled journalist for the TEGNA-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., WUSA. While at WUSA, Franklin covered and reported on some of the major stories over the last two years – the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Black/African American community, D.C.'s racial protests and demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
A scan of Franklin's byline will find hundreds of local breaking news stories, engaging ledes and well-calibrated anecdotes that center the individuals and communities in service of the journalism he's pursuing.
Prior to WUSA, Jonathan produced and reported for various ABC and CW affiliates across the country and was a freelance multimedia journalist for The Washington Informer in Washington, D.C. He began his journalism career at WDCW in Washington.
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Franklin earned his master's degree in journalism with an emphasis in broadcast and digital journalism from Georgetown University and his undergraduate degrees in English, Humanities and African/African American Studies from Wofford College.
Franklin is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., both the National and Washington Associations of Black Journalists, Online News Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
In his spare time, Franklin enjoys traveling to new cities and countries, watching movies, reading a good novel, and all alongside his favorite pastime: brunch.
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Despite leads from the public that have poured in over the last three years, there have been no solid answers regarding the 24-year-old geologist’s disappearance in Arizona on June 23, 2021. -
Shy'Kemmia Pate went missing from her home in Georgia more than 25 years ago, when she was eight years old. Her family is still hoping for answers.
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Shy'Kemmia Pate was just 8 years old when she vanished from her family's porch in Unadilla, Ga., on Sept. 4, 1998. She has not been heard from or seen ever since. -
Beyonce tickets are on sale, but after the Taylor Swift debacle there are questions about whether Ticketmaster is up to the challenges.
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The database tool estimates that younger, white women will get increasingly more news coverage than other racial groups — such as Black, Latino and Indigenous people. -
Just like with any voting bloc, there's still a vast array of diverging opinions, ideologies and issues that are important among Black voters in races. -
The game's jackpot has increased to an estimated $1.9 billion — one of the largest in U.S. lottery history. -
The 40-page class-action lawsuit alleges the state's law enforcement agency has a history of engaging in systemic discrimination against its officers of color. -
Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Mark Meadows, depicted a West Wing where some were very concerned about violence erupting at the Capitol and others, like Meadows and the former president, were not. -
In the fight to get justice for his brother's murder, Terrence Floyd has turned to the unlikeliest corners to do just that: NFTs — or non-fungible tokens.
