Eric Deggans

2024

By Jim Kelly

The dulcet tones of Eric Deggans’ baritone voice are familiar to all who listen to Weekend Edition or any number of other National Public Radio shows as he analyzes and critiques television shows and describes those who give them life. Folks may not know just how he developed that keen sense of criticism—of media and the society that creates and consumes it—but it is a story worth knowing.

Deggans was born in Washington, D.C., but raised in Gary, Indiana. His mother, Carolyn Jean Williams, was a teacher in the Gary Community School Corporation. She sacrificed to send her son to private middle and high schools, teaching him that quality education was the key to success in life. She maintained a place of comfort and refuge for Deggans in Gary until her death in 2020.

His father was Chuck Deggans, a newspaper columnist for the Gary Post-Tribune and the Crusader newspapers in Gary and Chicago who brought the city’s black social scene to life in the pages of the newspaper.

Eric Deggans attended Andrean High School, a Catholic preparatory institution in Merrillville, Indiana. He was a talented percussionist and writer, but also a kid who was bullied in the neighborhood and called, “The Professor.” He loved Stan Lee comics and the heroes Lee created on the page.

After graduation in 1983, Deggans enrolled in Indiana University’s journalism program in Bloomington and joined the student newspaper staff where he once interviewed members of The Fabulous Thunderbirds blues band— perhaps a harbinger of his professional career as a music and TV critic.

But his time at IU was also marked by prejudice and racism. As one of the few Black students in the newsroom, he said he never fully committed to the IDS culture. He was, however, quite committed to playing drums for his own blues band, The Voyage Band, which signed a Motown contract during his senior year that included tours in America and Japan.

After the contract ended, Deggans returned to journalism, landing a news reporting job at the Pittsburgh Press, where he had interned the previous summer. He finished his IU degree by correspondence in 1990.

After three years of news reporting, Deggans was hired as a music critic for the Asbury Park Press before moving to the then-St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) to be the pop music critic. He remained there for almost 18 years. By 1997, he had become the paper’s TV critic, crafting reviews, news stories and long-range trend pieces on the state of the media industry both locally and nationally. From 2004 to 2005, he sat on the editorial board and wrote bylined opinion columns, and then returned to media criticism until his departure in late 2013.

Deggans became NPR’s first full-time TV critic and media analyst where he regularly provides reviews, feature stories, commentary and guest hosting services for the network’s shows such as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” writes for NPR.org and appears on NPR podcasts such as “Consider This,” “Life Kit,” “Code Switch,” “Pop Culture Happy Hour” and “It’s Been a Minute.”

Deggans helps an audience of millions decode confusing media messages about race, inclusion and society and racism. He has contributed as a pundit, freelance writer or essayist on these topics to many media outlets, including The New York Times online; Politico; “NBC Nightly News”; “CBS This Morning”; “The NewsHour” (PBS); and a host of public and commercial radio and TV platforms.

During his later years at The Times, Deggans wrote a book that examines how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media. Published in October 2012, “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation,” argues that the fastest-growing news programs and media platforms play on old prejudices and deep-rooted fears about race that send their fans coded messages that demonize opposing groups. Even during an era marked by the first Black president, Deggans warned that these then emerging media outlets were forcing us all to reevaluate how we think about race, gender, culture, and class lines. His analysis now appears prescient.

The research for the book continues to inform the course he teaches as an adjunct instructor of journalism and public policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. In Race and the Media, he leads the class in dissecting how systemic racism distorts media messages and reflects America’s tortured history of progress and backlash on civil rights.

He has also lectured or taught at Harvard University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, DePaul University, Loyola University, George Washington University, the University of Southern California and at his alma mater, Indiana University.

He has served as keynote speaker for several groups, including the Florida Library Association, the National High School Journalism Association and the International Communication Association, along with moderating a panel with producers and stars of “The Walking Dead” series for the Smithsonian.

Deggans is a member of the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and chair of the Media Monitoring Committee for the National Association of Black Journalists. In 2009, he was cited as one of Ebony magazine’s Power 150, a list of influential Black Americans which also included Oprah Winfrey and PBS host Gwen Ifill. He has been honored with awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the Society of Professional Journalists; the Florida Press Club and the National Association of Black Journalists.

In 2019, he became the first African American to serve as chairman for the jurors who select the George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in electronic media at the University of Georgia; his one-year tenure capped a total six years he served on the board of jurors. In April 2020 he was given the Distinguished Alumni Service Award by Indiana University, the institution’s highest alumni honor, and a year later, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida chose him for its Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award.

In his book, Deggans credits Stan Lee for immersing him in a fantasy world where powerful beings made sure justice was done.

“There is no greater pleasure for me professionally than calling out inequality, injustice or a scam,” he said. “Throughout my career, I’ve seen myself as a surrogate for the audience and a voice against deceit, unfairness and unethical behavior. … handing the audience the tools to be their own superheroes – pushing back against the spin, stereotypical images, materialism, sexism, classism and consumerism embedded in so much media today.”

“The Professor” from Gary is not a character in a comic book, but he surely a real-life journalism hero who would have made his newspapering dad proud.

Deggans lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, with an office inside The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.