John McLaughlin

John McLaughlin is a news commentator/pundit.

I recall back in high school occasionally watching his show on PBS (public TV). In political science class, the teacher Detviler had a weekly current events contest, where the winning 4-person team got extra credit points. My team had my homie Chad, who was the 17-yr old Michael Jordan/Roger Federer of news & current events. But I was the Scottie Pippen of the squad, & watching McLaughlin helped us team to put 1990s Chicago Bulls-style domination on the other teams. Needless to say, our whole squad got A+s in that class.

Out of the blue, I remembered McLaughlin, & wondered if he was still providing his weekly show. To my joy [||], not only is McLaughlin still leading his weekly show, he's been doing it since 1982! Even better, now you don't have to catch it on TV, you can legally & freely download the shows from his podcast archives, either a video of the show, or just mp3 audio.

I nominate McLaughlin to the hyper HOF. McLaughlin has a unique trademark steez of introducing an issue by yelling out "Issue Number X". If 1 of his 4 other commentators is making a point he disagrees with, he yells out "Wrong" & then makes his point. McLaughlin ends the show with a trademark spastic annoying "bye bye".

Along with Dick Vitale, McLaughlin is holding down the Spastic Senior Citizen Crew (SSCC) of the hyper HOF. One great admirable trait of the SSCC, is that even though they easily have enough money to comfortably retire, & statistically they might only have a few years left to live, they LOVE their job so much, they'd rather keep working. That passion for their work is so refreshing to see, since normally that type of passion is limited to naive young folks before their spirit gets beaten down by office politics & other workplace ills.

McLaughlin's show is innovative & unique, in that he has
1 diversity in his pundits' politics, from the left-wing Eleanor Clift to the right-wing paleoconservative Pat Buchanan.

2 similar to Faux Noise, the commentators are passionate, spastic, & sometimes yell over each other.

3 UNLIKE Faux Noise, the commentators actually have some logical or insightful comments.

4 UNLIKE Faux Noise, the commentators have a friendly working relationship, even if they may disagree on ideology & politics.

It's basically a spastic debating society, with Prof. McLaughlin steering the discussion ala Socrates.

I see from Wiki that McLaughlin has invited Maria Bartiromo as a guest panelist, so it seems that McLaughlin is not opposed to inviting 1960s-born or younger folks as panelists. I would love to see TYT's Cenk Uyger or Wes Clark Jr on the show, I think that would be both insightful & entertaining.

Anyways, give old man McLaughlin a chance & download a recent show. You'll probably learn something & will enjoy it [||].