Jonathan Franklin
Reporter, Newsdesk
Jonathan Franklin is a reporter on the Newsdesk covering both race & identity and breaking news.
For the last few years, he has been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news across the nation's capital.
Franklin has been at the forefront of reporting on some of the most significant national stories to break during his time at NPR, including the Tops Supermarket mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., the Waukesha, Wis., Christmas parade attack, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
His reporting can be seen and heard across NPR's digital, social and audio platforms — such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition and NPR News Now.
He is also a frequent contributor to ESPN's The Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.
Prior to NPR, Franklin served as a digital multimedia journalist for WUSA, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., where he covered the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Black community, D.C.'s racial protests and demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.
You can quickly scan for Franklin's byline and find hundreds of breaking news and feature stories filled with engaging ledes, videos and live reporting along with well-calibrated anecdotes that center the individuals and communities in service of the journalism he's pursuing.
He began his journalism career as a news fellow and freelance journalist for WDCW in Washington.
Originally from Columbia, S.C., Franklin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University with a master's in journalism (with an emphasis in broadcast and digital journalism) and Cum Laude from Wofford College with undergraduate degrees in English/digital media and African/African-American studies.
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.
