Jon Marshall

(He/Him)

Associate Professor

Phone:847-467-2450Email:j-marshall@northwestern.eduOffice: Fisk 204B

Jon Marshall's research focuses on journalism history and the relationship between presidents and the press, especially investigative reporting. His books include Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis and Watergate's Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse.

Marshall has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Univision, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, Vox, The Washingtonian, Historiography, History Today, AFP, La Nacion, NBCNews.com, Chicago Tonight, Fox 32 Chicago, KMOX, KTLA, WAMC, WBAI, WGN, Wisconsin Public Radio, and the American Trends, Campbell Conversations, Connors Forum, E&P Reports, IdeaSphere, Majority Report, Politics Done Right, Tell Me Everything, Utterly Moderate, and Western Civ podcasts.

He is the winner of the President’s Award for Sustained and Meritorious Service by the American Journalism Historians Association and the Best Guest Award by the Journalism History podcast. His book Clash:Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis was a finalist for the American Journalism Historians Association’s and the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication’s book of the year awards.

Marshall is a former reporter for the Tampa Tribune and Daily Herald and columnist for Quill magazine.

Authored Works

Marshall’s most recent book, Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis, was published by Potomac Books in 2022. Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent of ABC News, said it “is a must-read for anybody interested in the vital role of a free press in a democratic society.”
Marshall's first book, Watergate's Legacy and the Press: The Investigative Impulse, was published in 2011 by the Northwestern University Press as part of Medill’s “Visions of the American Press” series. The Journal of American History described it as “the best history of American investigative journalism to date.” Leonard Downie Jr., former executive editor of the Washington Post, called it “a very readable, deeply researched and wisely analyzed assessment of American investigative reporting before and after Watergate.” James T. Hamilton, the author of Democracy’s Detectives, named Watergate’s Legacy and the Press one of the five best books on the economics of news.
Marshall wrote the foreword to Barry Sussman’s The Great Coverup: Nixon and the Scandal of Watergate (Catapulter Books, 2011, 4th edition).
His work also includes the following articles and research papers:

- “‘Tin Cans and String’: The Failed Attempts by Democrats to Challenge Conservative Talk Radio from 1994 to 1996,” co-authored with Gregory Svirnovskiy, presented at the American Journalism Historians Association’s 2023 annual conference and scheduled to be published in the summer 2024 edition of Journalism History.
- “From Truman to Biden, Presidential Addresses Have Barely Changed; It’s Time to Enliven Them,” The Hill, June 11, 2022.
- “The Press and the Presidency, From Washington to Trump,” Nieman Reports, May 16, 2022.
- “Calling Democrats Like Biden Fascists Has Always Been False,” The Washington Post, April 25, 2022.
- “Researching the History of Presidents and the Press,” Intelligencer, February 24, 2022.
- “Divided Loyalties: The Chicago Defender and Harold Washington’s Campaign for Mayor of Chicago,” American Journalism, 36, No. 4 (Fall 2019). Co-authored with Matthew Connor.
- “Like Watergate All Over Again? In Some Ways, Yes, but There Are Stark Differences,” Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2019. Republished by History News Network, September 26, 2019.
- “The Myth of Watergate Bipartisanship,” The New York Times, August 13, 2018. Co-authored with Michael Conway.
- “Once They Were Heroes: Changing Coverage of Baseball Stars in the Steroids Era,” co-authored with Nirmal Mulaikal, American Journalism Historians Association annual conference, Salt Lake City, October 2018.
- “How a Reporting Mistake Nearly Derailed the Watergate Investigation – and How Journalists Recovered,” Washington Post's “Made By History,” December 20, 2017.
- “7 Differences Between Trump Turmoil and Watergate,” Chicago Tribune, May 23, 2017.
- “Nixon Is Gone, but His Media Strategy Lives On,” TheAtlantic.com, August 5, 2014.
- “Four Decades After Their First Big Watergate Story, Woodward and Bernstein Still Matter,” Huffington Post, August 2012.
- “The First Lady of the Black Press vs. Joseph McCarthy: Ethel Payne’s Coverage of the Annie Lee Moss Hearings,” presented to the American Journalism Historians Association annual conference, Kansas City, October 2011.
- “The Transformation of Investigative Journalism in the Digital Age,” presented to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference, Denver, August 2010.
- “Outside Voices: Jon Marshall Suggests More Enterprising Stories … from Locations Outside the U.S.” CBS News Public Eye, Aug. 25, 2006.
- “Citizen Journalism Continues to Surge,” Quill, October/November 2005.

Education

Marshall received an MSJ degree from Medill and a B.A. from Vassar College.