Eric Deggans is NPR’s first full-time TV critic, appearing on all the network’s shows, including Morning Edition, Here & Now and All Things Considered, writing for NPR.org and appearing on podcasts such as Life Kit, Code Switch and Pop Culture Happy Hour. He also serves as a media analyst and contributor for MSNBC and NBC News and an adjunct instructor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
He guest hosted CNN’s media analysis show Reliable Sources several times in 2013. In the spring of 2019, he became the first Black person to serve as chairman of the board of educators, journalists and media experts who select the George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media.
Eric joined a prestigious group of contributors to the first ethics book created in a partnership between Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies: The New Ethics of Journalism, published in August 2013 by Sage/CQ Press.
He came to NPR in September 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times newspaper in Florida, where he served as TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. He is also author of a book dissecting how media outlets use prejudice and stereotypes to build ratings and power; Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, published in October 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan.
He is based in Saint Petersburg, Florida at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.
