Eric Deggans
TV Critic
Eric Deggans is NPR's first full-time TV critic, also serving as media analyst and guest host for the network.
Deggans came to NPR in 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times, where he served as TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. A journalist for more than 30 years, he is also the author of "Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation," a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media, published in October 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Deggans also serves as an adjunct instructor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and Indiana University's Media School. He teaches classes on race, media, reporting and writing.
He is a member of the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and chair of the Media Monitoring Committee for the National Association of Black Journalists. From 2017 to 2022, he served as a media analyst/contributor for MSNBC and NBC News and, in August 2013, he guest-hosted CNN's media analysis show Reliable Sources several times.
In 2019, Deggans served as the first African American chairman of the board of educators, journalists and media experts who select the George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media. His one-year tenure as chair capped a total six years he served on the board of jurors.
From 2004 to 2005, Deggans sat on the then-St. Petersburg Times editorial board and wrote bylined opinion columns (in 2011, the newspaper changed its name to the Tampa Bay Times). From 1997 to 2004, he worked as TV critic for the Times, crafting reviews, news stories and long-range trend pieces on the state of the media industry both locally and nationally. He originally joined the paper as its pop music critic in November 1995. He has worked at the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey and both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Press newspapers in Pennsylvania.
Additionally, he worked as a professional drummer in the 1980s, touring and performing with Motown recording artists The Voyage Band throughout the Midwest and in Osaka, Japan. He continues to perform with area bands and recording artists as a drummer, bassist and vocalist.
Deggans earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and journalism from Indiana University.
