For the first time in 34 years, McLaughlin missed the taping of last weekend’s show.
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McLaughlin died Tuesday morning, according to an announcement on the Facebook page of The McLaughlin Group series. On Tuesday morning, McLaughlin died at the age of89.
As Fox News reports, McLaughlin felt informing and entertaining the American people could happen simultaneously. “He will always be remembered”, it said. “The acquisition of knowledge need not be like listening to the Gregorian chant”, the host once said. HBO comedian John Oliver in May assembled a minute-long video mashup of McLaughlin’s curmudgeonly expression and tone when introducing discussion topics. “Issue one” he began on every broadcast, and he was never shy about cutting off his panelists to transition into the next three or four issues of the week.
The McLaughlin Group Facebook page posted a message on August 16, sharing the heartbreaking news that the show’s star had passed away.
At the peak of its popularity, the show was regularly lampooned on “Saturday Night Live”, with Dana Carvey playing McLaughlin. He also served as a host on CNBC in the early 1990s. I know many conservative fans of the show who were quite fond of the late Jack Germond, even though we seldom found Germond’s political views congenial. McLaughlin denied the allegations; the suit was settled out of court in December 1989.
Ordained a priest in 1960 after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Boston College and a Ph.D.at Columbia University, McLaughlin worked in the Nixon and Ford administrations, then created “The McLaughlin Group” in 1982.
He ran for the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island as an anti-Vietnam War Republican in 1970, losing to incumbent Democrat John Pastore.
McLaughlin was twice divorce, having married Ann Dore, his former campaign manager (he lost) in 1975.
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John McLaughlin, the Jesuit priest/presidential speechwriter/political columnist/syndicated TV series producer-host whose death was announced today, is widely credited with dragging TV political punditry into its current state of shout-festiness.
