David Folkenflik
David Folkenflik was described by Geraldo Rivera of Fox News as "a really weak-kneed, backstabbing, sweaty-palmed reporter." Others have been kinder. The Columbia Journalism Review, for example, once gave him a "laurel" for reporting that immediately led the U.S. military to institute safety measures for journalists in Baghdad.
Based in New York City, Folkenflik serves as NPR's media correspondent.
His stories and analyses are broadcast on the network's newsmagazines, such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Here & Now, and are featured on NPR's website and mobile platforms. Folkenflik's reports cast light on the stories of our age, the figures who shape journalism, and the tectonic shifts affecting the news industry. Folkenflik has reported intently on the relationship between the press, politicians, and the general public, as well as the fight over the flow of information in the age of Trump. Folkenflik brought listeners the profile of a Las Vegas columnist who went bankrupt fending off a libel lawsuit from his newspaper's new owner; conducted the first interview with New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet after his appointment; and repeatedly broke news involving the troubled Tronc company, which owns some of the most important regional newspapers in the country. In early 2018, Folkenflik's exposé about the past workplace behavior of the CEO of the Los Angeles Times forced the executive's immediate ouster from that job and helped inspire the sale of the newspaper.
Folkenflik is the author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. The Los Angeles Times called Murdoch's World "meaty reading... laced with delicious anecdotes" and the Huffington Post described it as "the gift that keeps on giving." Folkenflik is also editor of Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism. His work has appeared in such publications as the Washington Post, Politico Magazine, Newsweek International, the National Post of Canada, and the Australian Financial Review. Business Insider has called Folkenflik one of the 50 most influential people in American media.
Folkenflik joined NPR in 2004 after more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun, where he covered higher education, national politics, and the media. He started his professional career at the Durham Herald-Sun in North Carolina. Folkenflik served as editor-in-chief at the Cornell Daily Sun and graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in history.
A five-time winner of the Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism from the National Press Club, Folkenflik has received numerous other recognitions, including the inaugural 2002 Mongerson Award for Investigative Reporting on the News and top honors from the National Headliners. In 2018, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized Folkenflik with its 2018 Ethics in Journalism Award. In 2017, Penn State University named Folkenflik as the nation's leading media critic with the Bart Richards Award. He also served as the inaugural Irik Sevin Fellow at Cornell. Folkenflik frequently lectures at college campuses and civic organizations across the country and often appears as a media analyst for television and radio programs in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Ireland.
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Fox News stars, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, privately derided then-President Donald Trump's assertion he'd been cheated of victory in 2020, even as the network amplified such claims.
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A reporter was dismissed after state officials complained — the latest instance of political pressure on the station from Gov. Jim Justice's administration and some state legislators.
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M&M is withdrawing its "spokescandy" ads after Fox's Tucker Carlson railed about the candies' de-sexualization — as part of a push for a "woke" society. (Story aired on ATC on Jan. 24, 2023.)
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News outlets are sharply scrutinizing the disclosure that President Biden's private attorneys reported finding classified documents at an office he used while he was vice president.
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An ABC News freelance producer confronted critics of a consulting firm's powerful clients. Her actions confirm people's worst suspicions about the news media, says a former network news president.
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More than 1,000 New York Times newsroom union members went out on strike for a full day in the biggest work action at the paper in decades.
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After delays, Rupert Murdoch will be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which also alleges that Fox News destroyed messages from star Sean Hannity and others.
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Printed newspapers sent out across Illinois push Republican talking points against Democrats just in time for election season. They're taking advantage of the erosion of local news.
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Jeanine Pirro, Tucker Carlson and others are being grilled under oath in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for spreading lies about a voting tech company's role in the 2020 elections.
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Ex-President Trump was the first to alert everyone to the FBI search. Political supporters are outraged and that anger has spilled over to conservative media, where Trump is portrayed as a victim.