Pioneering conservative host John McLaughlin dies at age 89

John McLaughlin, the conservative host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered talking-head discussion of Washington politics, died this morning. He was 89. The McLaughlin Group introduced confrontational, panel-style conversations between journalists about the news of the day. McLaughlin’s goal was to entertain while informing. “The acquisition of knowledge need not be like listening to the Gregorian chant,” he said. A former Catholic priest, McLaughlin became a radio host in Washington, D.C., in 1980. The McLaughlin Group first aired in 1982 from an NBC station in Washington and went on to become nationally syndicated. The show’s current panelists are Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Clarence Page, and Tom Rogan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.