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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Nakala Murry says she will continue to fight for justice for her son after a Mississippi grand jury decided against indicting the police sergeant who shot him during a domestic dispute. -
In a statement, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch says her office completed its review into the May incident and presented it to a grand jury — who handed up the decision. -
Authorities said that the shooting suspect mailed letters to University of Nevada, Las Vegas employees across the country and that at least one letter contained a harmless unidentified white powder. -
Darryl George, 18, showed up for class on Tuesday at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, before being removed and placed back into in-school suspension for his natural hairstyle. -
Ernst, who has served in the Senate since 2015, hosted the closed-door luncheon for GOP senators Thursday when the incident occurred. -
Combs temporarily stepped down as chairman of the TV network he co-founded in 2013, a spokesperson for the record executive confirmed. The move follows lawsuits against Combs alleging sexual abuse.
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Two occupants in the vehicle that exploded at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y., are both dead, officials said. "At this time there is no indication of a terrorist attack," the governor said. -
Shy'Kemmia Pate was just 8 years old when she vanished from her family's porch in Unadilla, Ga., on Sept. 4, 1998. She has not been heard from or seen ever since. -
Dawn Todd and Darby Quezada had spent more than a decade trying to join the airline's program that staffs the Los Angeles Dodgers' flights. -
The three words "I Can't Breathe" refer to what some police brutality victims, like George Floyd, Eric Garner and Manuel Ellis, said before their untimely deaths at the hands of law enforcement.
