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.
-
Officials are looking into four confirmed cases of the dangerous bacteria discovered in the sprays. Two deaths associated with the bacteria are being investigated.
-
The lawsuit says there were at least two prior incidents at Glenwood Caverns in Colorado where the ride operators failed to properly secure passengers on the Haunted Mine Drop ride.
-
The trucking industry is short 68,000 drivers. By 2028, industry officials fear the number could jump to more than 100,000. A California high school allows seniors to learn trucking skills.
-
The U.S. donation from its domestic supplies comes on top of the 50 million doses previously donated to Africa, which world health officials say is 500 million doses short of its goal.
-
When a company can't use the internet's core protocols, it's as if its online domains simply don't exist. That happened to Facebook, creating a cascade of problems.
-
Experts say the long-term impacts to the environment — particularly on birds and marine life — could be significant. Officials haven't said what caused the oil to leak from an offshore pipeline.
-
Nadine Seiler, one of those who watched over a fence at what became Black Lives Matter Plaza, is working to find homes for more than 700 artifacts that once covered the structure near the White House.
-
The company says that daily exposure levels believed to be detected in the products likely would not cause "adverse health consequences."
-
Only one of Alaska's bears can take home the title of Fat Bear Week 2021 champion.
-
The bright phenomenon was videoed above the coast of North Carolina on Friday night. Sightings were also reported in South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.