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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More than 60 people were reported dead across the southeastern U.S. and millions were without power. Widespread flooding and landslides and cellular outages in western North Carolina impeded rescues. -
Helene, now a post-tropical cyclone, continues to flood parts of North Carolina and the Tennessee Valley. Dozens of storm-related deaths were reported in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. -
Helene made landfall late on Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 Hurricane. It weakened Friday morning to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph. -
People with disabilities, people who can't afford it and people who don't want to abandon their pets are among the many who can't easily get up and leave before a hurricane. -
Helene is forecast to intensify rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in Florida on Thursday. Residents are urged to make preparations — and in many counties, evacuate — before then. -
State leaders argue that the cargo ship was not fit to sail on March 26, and its owner, Grace Ocean Private Limited, and manager, Synergy Marine Group, failed to take precautions to prevent the crash. -
The sale to Oyo, a travel business, will include the Studio 6 motel brand, which caters to customers seeking extended stays. The all-cash transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of the year. -
The suspect "didn’t even get close to getting a round off," and never had a line of sight on Trump, authorities said. Ryan Wesley Routh is facing federal gun-related charges in the incident. -
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, $100 million will be used to make payments to impacted borrowers in a settlement with the former servicer of student loans. -
Attorneys representing conservative activist Edward Blum and the Atlanta-based Fearless Fund wrote that both parties “have settled,” asking the court to permanently dismiss the case.
