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joemurph.bsky.social
Joe Murphy
@joemurph.bsky.social
4.8K followers 1.9K following 550 posts
Data editor @NBCNews.com, @NBCguild.bsky.social strong, Oregonian born & raised, lives in NYC (Gowanus, Brooklyn). Formerly: New York Daily News, Denver Post, Medill.

Into dataviz, spreadsheets, accessibility, coding.

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Joe Murphy @joemurph.bsky.social · Mar 1
Very proud of the bio I wrote for the #NICAR2025 / #NICAR session I'm part of, wherein I shoutout the best text editor on the planet (vim).
Joe Murphy is a technically skilled editor at NBC News who loves figuring things out, getting people on the phone, unusual spreadsheets and making order from chaos. Also a fan of accessibility, Python, CSS, vim and the command line.
joemurph.bsky.social
Live updates on the U.S. military attack on Venezuela and its aftermath www.nbcnews.com/world/latin-...
Live updates: Maduro arrives in New York after capture
Follow live updates as Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro arrives in the U.S. following his capture overnight.
www.nbcnews.com
January 3, 2026 at 10:11 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
STUDY: Parents who delay baby's first vaccines also likely to skip measles shots: www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-...

This research published today in JAMA Network Open: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Parents who delay baby's first vaccines also likely to skip measles shots
Ahead of possible changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, a new report highlights growing confusion over the best time to protect infants from serious infectious diseases.
www.nbcnews.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:41 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
The latest from @NBCNews.com’s Vaccine Divide project:

"After decades of success against tetanus in the U.S., there are troubling signs that the deadly bacterial infection could make a comeback..."

www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-...
A (mostly) county map of the U.S. showing DTaP vaccination rates among kindergarteners. Rates are lower than 95% in most of the country, and lower rates are particularly visible in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest.
December 26, 2025 at 3:18 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
Made a fun Christmas playlist (soul songs mostly)
SPOTIFY: open.spotify.com/playlist/2oS...
YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
APPLE MUSIC: geo.music.apple.com/library/play...
AMAZON MUSIC: music.amazon.com/user-playlis...
TIDAL: tidal.com/playlist/6ff...
PANDORA: pandora.com/playlist/PL:...
JOE’S XMAS LIST
open.spotify.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:01 AM
joemurph.bsky.social
New from @NBCNews.com’s Digital Docs team: A 51-minute documentary on what covering the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza was like for two NBC News journalists.
www.nbcnews.com/video/filmed...

See the web edition of their story: www.nbcnews.com/specials/fil...
Filmed in Gaza: Two NBC News journalists on what it is like to cover the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza
For almost two years, Samed Abu Zarifa and Samir Al Boji covered the Israel-Hamas war from inside Gaza as it unfolded around them. "Filmed in Gaza" is a rare, intimate portrait of their daily lives si...
www.nbcnews.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:41 AM
joemurph.bsky.social
Contributed to the reporting on this day-two story about Friday’s Epstein document dump www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...
Scrutiny of DOJ's release of Epstein documents continues into second day
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said he wants to investigate why all the documents weren’t released at once. Meanwhile, 15 images made public Friday disappeared from the DOJ’s website.
www.nbcnews.com
December 21, 2025 at 2:52 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
The @NBCNews.com Data / Graphics team has a big map running on tonight's Nightly News with Tom Llamas broadcast. Tune in! www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news
Nightly News with Tom Llamas: The Latest Global and U.S. Breaking News Every Night
Coverage of the latest global and U.S. breaking news stories by Tom Llamas on NBCNews.com. Watch videos of breaking news, politics, health, lifestyle and more.
www.nbcnews.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
walinchus.bsky.social
1/7 Behind the story: calculating all the numbers behind this @nbcnews.com story took three months, 1,181 lines of code, and three former court employees to verify the methodology.

@joemurph.bsky.social @suzgamboa.bsky.social @joyywang.bsky.social

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
How the Trump administration pushed to reopen immigration cases, putting thousands at risk of deportation
An NBC News analysis found that the Trump administration has filed more than 117,000 requests to reopen cases immigration judges had deemed low priority.
www.nbcnews.com
December 17, 2025 at 9:35 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
NEW: @walinchus.bsky.social found evidence of a new maneuver the Trump administration’s using in its immigration crackdown, and we all reported it out for @NBCNews.com: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
How the Trump administration pushed to reopen immigration cases, putting thousands at risk of deportation
An NBC News analysis found that the Trump administration has filed more than 117,000 requests to reopen cases immigration judges had deemed low priority.
www.nbcnews.com
December 17, 2025 at 9:15 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
“In recent weeks, nearly two dozen elected officials on both sides of the aisle said they were targeted after getting caught in the president's crosshairs.”

I got to contribute to this @NBCNews.com piece by Dareh Gregorian and Jiachuan Wu:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
This is a timeline compares the dates and time when Donald Trump posted about various public officials with the dates those individuals reported receiving threats, bomb threats, or swatting attacks: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — Trump post: Nov. 14; threats reported: Nov. 15. State Sen. Greg Goode (R-Ind.) — Post: Nov. 16; swatting and threats hours after Trump posted. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) — Post: Nov. 20; bomb threat: Nov. 21. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) — Post: Nov. 16; bomb threat: Nov. 21. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) — Post: Nov. 20; bomb threat: same day, Nov. 20. Chuck Schumer — Post: Nov. 20; bomb threat: Dec. 1. There are more.
December 16, 2025 at 1:29 AM
joemurph.bsky.social
VINDICATED bsky.app/profile/merr...
A screenshot of my December 2024 post where I write that slop should have been the word of the year in 2024. Full text follows: I know it's out of the news cycle but if you'd have asked me what the 2024 word of the year should be I would have gone with "slop." I realize slop was a finalist (alongside demure, lore and others). Slop shoulda won
December 15, 2025 at 6:36 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
This @NBCNews.com / Stanford University report on county-level childhood vaccination rates across the U.S. is as timely as ever: www.nbcnews.com/specials/vac...
The Vaccine Divide
Decades of immunization progress is backsliding, an NBC News data investigation reveals, threatening the safety of children in America, burdening schools and hindering public health.
www.nbcnews.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:56 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
These toys were in the newsroom and they were.... something else.

AI toys for kids talk about sex and issue Chinese Communist Party talking points, tests show www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
AI toys for kids talk about sex and issue Chinese Communist Party talking points, tests show
New research from Public Interest Research Group and tests conducted by NBC News found that a wide range of AI toys have loose guardrails.
www.nbcnews.com
December 11, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
meghanhoyer.bsky.social
We used 1,100 real users' data to help re-create TikTok’s algorithm, and then made a map, allowing you to explore the hidden divides that decide what content you see - and what you don't.
Awesome work by @fox.computer, Leslie Shapiro & @jeremybmerrill.com:
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/i...
Are you in TikTok’s cat niche? What 121,000 videos reveal
We re-created TikTok’s algorithm based on 1,100 users’ feeds. Explore which topics are in your feed and see what the algorithm is least likely to show you.
www.washingtonpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
Hi all,
Here’s my annual winter (dark and gloomy, not jolly jolly) playlist, it’s an all-new collection of 135 songs from artists spanning the globe, posted on six music streaming services (links below and also here: joemurph.com/playlists/de... ). Art by Ada and me.
An oil pastel and digital painting, mostly deep blues and black, with splattery splots of white, kind of evokes a snow storm.
December 5, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
kokogiak.bsky.social
Day 4 of the 2025 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: Hot Stars in the Lobster Nebula. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged this region where the radiation & winds from a group of super-hot infant stars are blasting clouds of surrounding dust. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
A dark and dense cloud of dust takes up the left half of the image, with a cluster of glittering white stars at right, all backdropped by many more-distant stars. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Pagan, STScI)
December 4, 2025 at 4:50 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
The team put together this nice little article with a map about where Christmas trees come from ( www.nbcnews.com/data-graphic... ) and this morning I got the nicest reader email I've received in a long time.
Good morning Joe, I just wanted to reach out and say that I found your article on the Christmas tree growth locations to be really neat and that I enjoyed reading it. Have a happy holiday season. Justin
December 4, 2025 at 4:33 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
Hello budding data journalists.

The @NBCNews.com Data / Graphics team is looking for a summer 2026 intern, full-time, $30 / hour, working at 30 Rock in NYC.

The application deadline is Friday Dec. 5 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Details and link to application form below:

gist.github.com/freejoe76/56...
December 1, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
tktk.bsky.social
Did you know that a bunch of prominent right-wing figures are arguing that Watergate was a “deep state coup” to take down Nixon?

I wrote about how this is happening, and why it worries historians

www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol... @nbcnews.com
The campaign to make Richard Nixon great again
The late president, who resigned in disgrace in 1974, actually wasn’t a crook, pundits on the right argue.
www.nbcnews.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
neillewisjr.bsky.social
The magnitude of the change over time is striking.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Weekly measles cases in the U.S. CDC data plotted by NBC News
November 28, 2025 at 3:50 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
[corrected] Turkey facts: Turkeys outnumber humans about 6 to 1 in Minnesota. There are about 32 million turkeys in the state, and around 200 million in the country. The U.S. is responsible for nearly half of the world’s turkeys.

Source: USDA, U.S. Census Bureau.
November 28, 2025 at 3:33 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
Somehow, grocery store turkey prices stayed about even with last year, despite an 80% increase in whole-bird wholesale prices. With @EvanBush.bsky.social and Melinda Yao for @NBCNews.com:
www.nbcnews.com/data-graphic...
Turkey prices hold steady for Thanksgiving
Rising bird flu cases have made turkeys more expensive for stores, but consumers are being spared the price pinch.
www.nbcnews.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:25 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
Big, yearlong investigation from @NBCNews.com landed today:

"Dozens of pregnant women locked up in county jails described excruciating pain, saying their cries for help were ignored as they miscarried or gave birth into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors."

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
'Why won't you help me?' Pregnant women and their babies are dying in jail
Dozens of pregnant women locked up in county jails described excruciating pain, saying their cries for help were ignored as they miscarried or gave birth into cell toilets or on filthy jail floors.
www.nbcnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:21 PM
joemurph.bsky.social
International student enrollment rates at American colleges and universities fell sharply this year, driven by visa application issues as prospective students are caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

New from Melinda Yao for @NBCNews.com:
www.nbcnews.com/data-graphic...
This chart shows the number of new international students enrolled in U.S. higher ed each year since 2015, when 300,000 students enrolled. That was the most of any year. Generally, numbers are between 260,000 and 300,000 each year, with exceptions for the first year of the pandemic (145,000) and 2025, when an estimated 230,000 students enrolled, based on preliminary figures.
November 17, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Joe Murphy
emilyhughes.bsky.social
pre-writing a devastating obituary for your enemy is god-tier hating of a kind you don’t often see anymore. renaissance haterism. beautiful stuff.
brittanytrang.com Brittany Trang @brittanytrang.com · Nov 8
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.

Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."

Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:55 AM