Andrew Charles Griffin (October 21, 1962 – December 17, 2022) was an American journalist. He won several

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and

Peabody Awards The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for his work at

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

, notably for the coverage of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2005 and an investigation that led to the Veterans Health Administration controversy of 2014.

Early life and career

Griffin was born on October 21, 1962 to Michael and Judith Griffin, who worked as a civil engineer and lawyer, respectively. He attended the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, where he majored in communications. Griffin began his career at WICD-TV in Illinois, before stints in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Washington, D.C. He then worked as an investigative reporter for ten years at CBS 2 News in Los Angeles. He joined

in May 2004. In September 2005, Griffin covered the aftermath of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. Griffin's reports on the looting by some police officers prompted police investigations. He also broke stories about nursing home deaths after Katrina. Griffin, along with CNN, won a

Peabody award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for his Hurricane Katrina coverage. In 2014, Griffin covered an investigation into delays in medical care at the

Veterans Health Administration The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the component of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led by the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health that implements the healthcare program of the VA through a national ...

health system, which resulted in at least 19 patient deaths. VA Secretary

Eric Shinseki Eric Ken Shinseki (; born November 28, 1942) is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2009–2014). His final United States Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Arm ...

eventually resigned following coverage of the scandal. A few years later, Griffin covered

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

cases involving drivers for the ridesharing company,

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...

. Among his last notable works was the coverage of events following the

January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob was seeking to keep Trump in pow ...

in 2021.

Awards

Griffin won a business and financial reporting

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

in 2005 for his reports on a fault in

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

vehicles which caused them to catch fire. He earned his second Emmy in 2006 for ''How to Rob a Bank,'' a documentary for ''

CNN Presents ''CNN Presents'' is an American documentary program on CNN weekends. The program used to be replaced with '' CNN Special Investigations Unit'', which features the same documentary format, but differs from it in a number of ways and is shorter ...

'', and a third in 2007 for ''Hidden Spending'', a report on congressional spending broadcast as a segment in ''

Anderson Cooper 360° ''Anderson Cooper 360°'' (commonly shortened to either ''AC-360'' or ''360'') is an American television news show on CNN and CNN International, hosted by CNN journalist and news anchor Anderson Cooper. Since May 20, 2019, ''360°'' has been br ...

''. ''Crisis at the VA'', which broke the story on scandals of hidden wait times and deaths at VA hospitals across the country, garnered a Peabody award in 2015. His fourth Emmy, in 2017, was awarded for ''Trump University Fraud'', about fraudulent practices behind

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's real estate school.

Personal life and death

Griffin was a native of Chicago, Illinois. He and his wife, Margot, had three children. He lived in the

Atlanta metropolitan area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

, and died from cancer at home on December 17, 2022, at age 60.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Griffin, Drew 1962 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists American television reporters and correspondents CBS News people CNN people Deaths from cancer in Georgia (U.S. state) Journalists from Illinois News & Documentary Emmy Award winners Writers from Chicago University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences alumni