John McLaughlin, host of confrontational TV show, dead at 89

NEW YORK (AP) — John McLaughlin, the conservative political commentator and host of the namesake long-running television show that pioneered hollering-heads discussions of Washington politics, has died. He was 89.

McLaughlin died this morning, according to an announcement on the Facebook page of "The McLaughlin Group" series. No cause of death was mentioned, but an ailing McLaughlin had missed the taping for this past weekend's show for the first time in the series' 34 years.

Since its debut in April 1982, "The McLaughlin Group" upended the soft-spoken and nonconfrontational style of shows such as "Firing Line," ''Washington Week in Review" and "Agronsky & Co." with a raucous format that largely dispensed with politicians.

It instead featured journalists quizzing, talking over and sometimes insulting each other. In recent years, the show billed itself as "The American Original" – a nod to shows that copied the format.

"My feeling is talk shows have not kept pace with the breakthroughs and changes in format in television generally," McLaughlin told The Associated Press in 1986. "I began the group as a talk show of the '90s."

He said informing an audience could be entertaining: "The acquisition of knowledge need not be like listening to the Gregorian chant."