“John McLaughlin was one of the most original and appealing television commentators of our time”, said Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Chairman and Publisher of The Daily News, who served as a regular panelist on the show.
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John McLaughlin, the host of the long-running the McLaughlin Group has died.
The show’s official Facebook page announced McLaughlin’s death. “He will always be remembered”, it said.
According to the post Tuesday, information regarding McLaughlin’s memorial service will be released via his show’s Facebook page. “My spirit is strong and my dedication to this show remains absolute”, the note read.
Last week, McLaughlin missed his show because he was “under the weather”, he said in a statement.
When it debuted, “The McLaughlin Group” stood in sharp contrast with “Firing Line”, “Washington Week in Review” and other political programming of its day, with a contentious atmosphere in which politicians were set aside in favor of giving voice to opinion journalists.
Since The McLaughlin Group first aired in 1982, McLaughlin had never missed a show in the 34 years – until Sunday. It’s a style McLaughlin once described to the Associated Press as “the acquisition of knowledge need not be like listening to the Gregorian chant”.
McLaughlin was born in Providence, R.I., in 1927 and joined the Jesuit order as a young man, earning two master’s degrees from Boston College and a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University. After teaching in CT, he went on to obtain his doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University.
His career path included stints as a high-school teacher, magazine editor, U.S. Senate candidate, and White House special assistant to Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford. It aired here on WTTW11 on Saturday nights and was known for its lively political discussions.
Paleoconservatives have a special reason to be grateful to John McLaughlin. McLaughlin became a talk radio show host on a Washington station in 1980, but only lasted a year.
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McLaughlin, a former Catholic priest who became a pundit in the 1970s after writing speeches for President Richard Nixon, was 89.
