John McLaughlin (born March 29, 1927) is an American television personality and political commentator. He created, produces and hosts the long-running political commentary series The McLaughlin Group as well as John McLaughlin's One On One.
Education and Early Career
McLaughlin earned two master's degrees (philosophy and English literature) from Boston College, and a Ph.D. (philosophy) from Columbia University. Upon entering the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic Church and being ordained a priest, McLaughlin spent years as a high school teacher at Fairfield College Preparatory School, a Jesuit prep school in Connecticut. A Republican, he originally opposed the Vietnam War and, in 1970, sought permission from his order to run for a seat in the United States Senate, representing Rhode Island. His superiors denied him this, even though they did grant permission to fellow Jesuit Father Robert Drinan to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts. McLaughlin defied his superiors and ran anyway, losing to the incumbent four-term Senator John O. Pastore.
Through a friendship with Pat Buchanan, McLaughlin became a war supporter and a speech writer/advisor to President Richard Nixon. Because priests are not allowed to take on political jobs, he was ordered by his Jesuit superiors to return to Boston and, rather than obey, he left the Society of Jesus.
Prior to entering broadcasting, he was associate editor of America, a weekly opinion journal. From 1981 to 1989, McLaughlin was Washington editor and author of the monthly political column, "From Washington Straight," for the National Review.
Broadcast career
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The McLaughlin Group premiered in 1982. The show features four political commentators, usually two conservatives and two liberals, in addition to McLaughlin seated between. The McLaughlin Group is most widely seen on PBS affiliates, although it is also seen on many NBC commercial affiliates. The show is taped in the same studio at WRC-TV as the NBC Sunday morning political program Meet The Press, and airs in the Washington, DC area following Meet The Press. It is seen in the UK and other parts of Europe on CNBC Europe and worldwide on American Forces Network, and on the WORLDNET satellite service. The show has moved to CBS and is taped at the Washington WUSA studio.
The McLaughlin Group is available in low-resolution video podcast form on the show's web site and on iTunes. Interestingly, although the show is shown on PBS with no commercials, the podcast edition has commercial messages from the broadcast Sunday mornings on WRC-TV in Washington, DC.
McLaughlin is fond of making witty predictions based on current events, and of asking questions in interesting ways. One phrase he often uses is: "On a scale of 0 to 10--with 0 representing zero possibility and 10 representing metaphysical certitude--what is the chance of...?" His loud and forceful style of presentation has been parodied by many comedians and other commentators, most notably Dana Carvey of Saturday Night Live. McLaughlin himself appeared as the Grim Reaper in an SNL sketch that parodied his show.
McLaughlin also hosts John McLaughlin's One On One, first telecast in 1984, and from 1989 through 1994, produced and hosted McLaughlin, a one-hour nightly talk show on CNBC.
McLaughlin has also appeared in films, among them, Dave, Mission Impossible, Independence Day and War, Inc..
In June 2008, McLaughlin caused a minor stir when he proclaimed, in reference to Barack Obama's candidacy, that "Warren G. Harding was a negro." The comment was featured on the June 9th edition of The Colbert Report. On July 13, McLaughlin again stirred controversy with verbiage in reference to the Obama campaign, labeling Senator Obama with the derogatory term "Oreo" on-air.[1]
Personal life and views
McLaughlin married Ann Dore, his former campaign manager. She served as Secretary of Labor under Ronald Reagan from 1987 until 1989. The couple divorced in 1992. McLaughlin's current wife is Christina Vidal McLaughlincitation needed. She is also cited as a vice president of operations on the McLaughlin Group entry at IMDb.
Leading up to the 2004 United States presidential election, he announced that he would be voting for Democratic candidate John Kerry. His political views, however, are diversified and usually specific to the issues at hand.
References
- ^ CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McLaughlin takes heat for ‘Oreo’ comment « - Blogs from CNN.com
External links
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