Press & broadcasting / Politics
Lou Gordon
1917–1977 · television interviewer, columnist, political reporter
Combative Detroit TV interviewer whose Lou Gordon Program on WKBD (1966–1977) drew George Romney's 1967 'brainwashing' remark that sank his presidential hopes.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
aged 60- Detroit years
- 1917–1977
- Field
- Press & broadcasting, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Gordon was a Detroit political reporter and radio host who became the city's most feared television interviewer. From 1966 until his death in 1977 he hosted The Lou Gordon Program, a 90-minute talk show taped several times a week at WKBD, Channel 50, and syndicated to Kaiser stations across the country, with his wife Jackie reading viewers' questions on air. He also wrote a twice-weekly column for The Detroit News, and during the long 1967–1968 newspaper strike he published Scope Magazine to fill the gap left by the idle dailies. His most famous moment came on August 31, 1967, when Michigan Governor George Romney told him he had undergone 'the greatest brainwashing' during a trip to Vietnam; the remark derailed Romney's front-running campaign for the 1968 Republican nomination. Author Tim Kiska called him Detroit's Mike Wallace.
Highlights
- Host of The Lou Gordon Program on WKBD-TV, 1966–1977
- 1967 interview in which George Romney spoke of being 'brainwashed' on Vietnam
- Twice-weekly columnist for The Detroit News
- Published Scope Magazine during the 1967–1968 Detroit newspaper strike