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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The agreement says the chain must correct any future safety violations regarding blocked exits or access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels — or face fines of up to $500,000 per violation. -
The company that operates the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Milwaukee says it has fired the guards involved in Mitchell's death late last month, saying their conduct "violated our policies and procedures." -
After tearing through parts of the southeast Caribbean, Beryl was tracking towards Jamaica on Tuesday with maximum sustained winds around 160 miles per hour. -
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. -
CEO Robert Isom vows immediate action following the incident involving eight Black men on a flight from Phoenix to JFK, as well as other alleged accounts of racial discrimination toward passengers. -
The mom whose remains were discovered in 1983 in what's now Lake Forest, Calif., was positively identified Friday by authorities as Maritza Glean Grimmett, says the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. -
The rollout of online passport renewal is restricted to certain windows, beginning midday Eastern time weekly. Officials say the processing times for renewing online are the same as renewing by mail. -
The eight employees say that since the plant opened in 1988, many systems in place have benefited white workers more than Black staff. They claim that HR has ignored “egregious incidents of racism.” -
Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, says that without an appropriate response from American Airlines, the civil rights organization will be forced to reinstate an advisory against the airline. -
On Friday, the Okaloosa County, Fla., Sheriff’s Department said that Deputy Eddie Duran was fired following the completion of an administrative internal affairs investigation amid Fortson’s death.
