John McLaughlin (host)

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 and advisor to U.S. 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

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, and is taped at the studios ofWUSA-TV in Washington DC.

It is seen in the UK and other parts of Europe and worldwide on American Forces Network, and on the WORLDNET satellite service.

"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 WUSA-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. [ [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/14/mclaughlin-takes-heat-for-oreo-comment/ CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McLaughlin takes heat for ‘Oreo’ comment « - Blogs from CNN.com ] ]

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 McLaughlinFact|date=June 2008. She is also cited as a vice president of operations on the "McLaughlin Group."

Leading up to the 2004 United States presidential election, McLaughlin 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

External links

*imdb name | id=0572349 | name=John McLaughlin (I)
* [http://www.mclaughlin.com/about/bio.htm?pid=6 "The McLaughlin Group" website: John McLaughlin bio]