David Folkenflik

Some Immigration Terms Are Going Out Of Newsroom Style

Credit Roberto Schmidt / AFP/Getty Images

Protesters demonstrate in downtown Orlando, Fla., on May 1, 2006. Most news outlets have long abandoned the use of the term "illegals."

By David Folkenflik

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 4:41 pm

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Journalists make choices all the time that influence our understanding of the news — the choice of what stories to cover, which people to interview, which words to use. And major news organizations have been reconsidering how best to describe a group of people whose very presence in this country breaks immigration law.

4:17 am

Fri April 26, 2013

Billionaire Koch Brothers Increase Their Role In U.S. Politics

Credit David McNew / Getty Images

The Tribune Co. is considering the sale of all of its daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times, whose building is pictured above.

By David Folkenflik

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 5:59 pm

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The Tribune Co., emerging from bankruptcy and looking to reshape itself, is now considering the sale of all its newspapers — including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun and five other regional newspapers. It's still very early in the sale process; although the newspaper unit has been valued at $623 million, significant debts are also attached, and Tribune has signaled that it reserves the right not to sell if there isn't a worthy bid.

4:15 pm

Thu April 25, 2013

China's CCTV America Walks The Line Between 2 Media Traditions

Credit CCTV America

Before joining CCTV America, Phillip T.K. Yin was an anchor and reporter for Bloomberg Television.

By David Folkenflik

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 7:16 pm

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At a time when so many major American news organizations are cutting back, foreign news agencies are beefing up their presence abroad and in the U.S. One of the biggest new players arrives from China and, more likely than not, can be found on a television set near you.

CCTV, or China Central Television, is owned by the Chinese government. With more than 40 channels in China and an offshoot in the U.S., the broadcaster has been highly profitable for the country's ruling Communist Party, which is liking profits a lot these days.

3:29 pm

Fri April 12, 2013

Great Long-Form Journalism, Just Clicks Away

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Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

As newspapers around the country struggle with declining subscription rates and smaller staffs, passionate, long-form digital storytelling is creating new ways of delivering richly detailed reporting.

Credit Alan Berner / The Seattle Times

Jacqui Banaszynski, once a Pulitzer Prize-winning print reporter and editor at some of the country's most significant newspapers, says she is pleased by the growth of Web-based narrative journalism.

By David Folkenflik

Originally published on Mon April 15, 2013 10:12 am

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In the age of hundreds of cable channels, millions of 140-character bulletins and an untold number of cat videos, a fear has been growing among journalists and readers that long-form storytelling may be getting lost.

4:11 am

Thu April 4, 2013

NBC Has More Problems Than Just 'Tonight Show' Hosts

By David Folkenflik

Originally published on Thu April 4, 2013 4:26 am

NBC announced Wednesday that Jimmy Fallon will take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno next spring. But NBC has a raft of other problems including a rocky ride in prime time. Plus, it fell from first place last fall to fifth in February — behind not just the other broadcast networks but the Spanish language Univision.

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Geraldo Rivera of the Fox News Channel once described David Folkenflik as "a really weak-kneed, backstabbing, sweaty-palmed reporter." Others have been kinder. The Columbia Journalism Review, for example, gave him a "laurel" for his reporting that immediately led the U.S. military to institute safety measures for journalists in Baghdad.

Folkenflik is NPR's media correspondent based in New York City. His stories are broadcast on NPR's newsmagazines and shows, including All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation. His reports offer insight into the operation of the media amid tectonic shifts in the industry and cast light on figures who help shape the way the news business works. NPR's listeners were first to learn how the corporate owners of the glossy magazine GQ sought to smother distribution of its provocative story about Russian Premier Vladimir Putin. They also found out, amid the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic church, how a small, liberal Catholic weekly based in Kansas City had been documenting allegations of abuse by priests for a generation. Folkenflik provides media criticism on the air and at NPR.org on coverage of a broad array of issues — from the war in Afghanistan, to the financial crisis, to the saga of the "Balloon Boy."

Before joining NPR in 2004, Folkenflik spent more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun, where he covered higher education, Congress, and the media. He started his career at the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun. In 1991, Folkenflik graduted with a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun.

A three-time winner of the Arthur Rowse Awards for Press Criticism from the National Press Club, Folkenflik won the inaugural 2002 Mongerson Award for Investigative Reporting on the News, presented by the Center for Media and Public Affairs and the University of Virginia's Center for Governmental Studies. Folkenflik's work has also been recognized with top honors from the National Headliners Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. He was the first Irik Sevin Visiting Fellow at Cornell and speaks frequently at colleges across the country. He has served as a media analyst on such television programs as CNN's Reliable Sources, ABC News' Nightline, Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

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4:03 pm

Thu May 9, 2013