
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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Axel Cox said he chose to burn the cross in front of his Black neighbors because of their race, saying he "intended to scare them into moving out of the neighborhood."
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Nationally, the number of hate crimes reported by the FBI increased from 8,120 in 2020 to 9,065 in 2021.
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The title of the city's monument was inspired by Robert Hayden's 1962 poem entitled "Runagate Runagate," which references Tubman.
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News of the instance of antisemitism is one of several hate incidents reported on Stanford's campus this academic year.
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People close to Kemp say the case is one of self-defense, after the former Seattle SuperSonics star allegedly tracked down a stolen iPhone.
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Nearly 20 hours of new footage and audio, along with accompanying documents, will be released to the public on Wednesday afternoon, officials say.
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Eric R. Holder Jr. will likely remain in jail for the rest of his life for the murder of Nipsey Hussle, a beloved figure in south LA who was killed in 2019 outside his clothing store.
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Heavy snow and high winds are causing blizzard conditions in the Upper Midwest. It's the latest stage of a three-day storm that's placed over half the country under winter weather warnings.
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The 19-year-old also faces 27 charges at the federal level, one of which carries a possible death sentence. He will make an appearance in federal court this week.
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Body cam footage of the brutal arrest in Memphis of the Black man has sparked protests in several cities. The five ex-officers involved face a litany of charges, including second-degree murder.