FIGHT BACK - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Editor - in - Chief of FightBack.Com.
- Partner in Fight Back!
Since 1973, David Horowitz has educated television viewers, radio listeners, newspaper readers and book buyers nationwide about their rights in the marketplace. He has been called "the best TV consumer reporter there ever was" by the Los Angeles Times.
Horowitz's multiple Emmy-Award winning television series Fight Back! With David Horowitz raised his profile. The show featured serious and hard-hitting investigative segments, which often led to successful criminal prosecutions and congressional legislation.
Fight Back!'s influence extended to public affairs. Horowitz helped draft more than 50 pieces of consumer-related legislation in America including toy gun and automobile safety laws and was honored with more than 400 awards from government and citizens groups. He served as the honorary mayor of Brentwood, California, and on the Federal Communications Commission and Los Angeles District Attorney's advisory boards. He was instrumental in helping form The County of Los Angeles Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.
Horowitz's track record as a journalist included stints as a writer for NBC News and as one of the first television network correspondents in Vietnam. Horowitz began his career as a newspaper and wire service reporter, entering broadcasting as a writer/producer for the ABC Radio Network. Before consumer reporting, he was NBC's minority affairs editor and television's first education reporter and a writer for The Huntley Brinkley Report.
Horowitz's career highlights include being the only reporter on the air at KNBC during the 1971 earthquake in Los Angeles. He achieved international attention for his calm and composure when he was held hostage on KNBC Los Angeles' live newscast in 1987. He was the first on the scene to break the OJ Simpson story for KCBS.
Horowitz appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more than 40 times, with Carson impersonating him as "David Howitzer Consumer Supporter." Horowitz was also a regular correspondent on NBC News' TODAY and CNBC's Steals & Deals. Horowitz founded the nonprofit Fight Back! Foundation for Consumer Education to create public awareness of consumer issues and to interest young people in careers in journalism, government and consumer affairs.
David Horowitz is held hostage during a live news broadcast. The "gun" turns out to be a toy replica. Horowitz helps to draft legislation in 14 states regarding banning, or otherwise regulating, look a-like weapons and toys so they can be easily identified instead of being confused with real weapons. This leads Congress to pass a bill regulating the shape and colors of toy guns, so they no longer appear realistic.