Bob Franken

Robert E. Franken was born in 1941 and was a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, leaving after his freshman year to work in radio. His first job in journalism was as local news director of the radio station WDLB in Marshfield, Wisconsin.

From 1970 to 1979 Franken was a reporter and anchor at WJW-TV, then the CBS affiliate in Cleveland. He reported on the great blizzards of 1977 and 1978, the financial default of the city, and the ruling by U.S. District Judge Frank J. Battisti that ordered the desegregation of the Cleveland public schools. His coverage of the 1978 Cleveland mayoral recall election won him an Emmy Award.

In 1981 he became a reporter and bureau manager for NBC at the Pittsburgh station WPXI, and from 1983 he worked in the CBS News bureau in Washington, D.C., as an assignment editor and producer. He joined CNN in 1986 as a general assignment correspondent. He later served as the network's congressional correspondent, covering the House of Representatives and major hearings and investigations, and reported from the Supreme Court and the White House during the presidency of George W. Bush. He covered the Persian Gulf War, the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas and the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns.

Franken was CNN's principal correspondent for the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq he was one of 18 CNN journalists embedded with the U.S. military, travelling with the Air Force, and he was on the scene by videophone when seven American prisoners of war were released, a story he later named as one of the most memorable of his career. He also reported at length from the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

CNN did not renew his contract in early 2007, and he moved to MSNBC, where he appeared often as a guest and commentator. He went on to write a syndicated political column, distributed in the United States and Canada, in which he offered a sharp and often punning view of Washington and its newsmakers.

Franken was a cousin of the comedian and former U.S. senator from Minnesota, Al Franken. He had a daughter, Jessica Franken. Colleagues and his syndicators described him as a reporter with a piquant wit and a knack for sharp storytelling, and he was known on air for his fondness for puns.

Bob Franken died on Wednesday 21 October 2026 after a battle with aphasia and dementia. His daughter, Jessica Franken, announced his death on social media, saying he died peacefully with her by his side and that his condition had deteriorated significantly after a serious fall earlier in the year. She said that losing the ability to communicate had been especially hard for a man whose career was built on expression, but that he had kept finding ways to connect with the people he loved. His death was reported by the Washington media news site DCRTV on 22 October 2026. A celebration of his life was being planned for the coming months.

Franken was part of the generation of correspondents who built CNN into a round the clock news network, and for years he was one of its most familiar faces on Capitol Hill. His reporting on the Clinton impeachment, the Iraq wars and Guantanamo Bay put him at the centre of some of the biggest stories of his era, and his Emmy winning local reporting in Cleveland remains part of that city's broadcast history. His columns carried his voice to newspaper readers long after he left daily television.