David Horowitz

David Horowitz was an American consumer reporter and journalist.

Horowitz was best known as the creator, host, and executive producer of the television program, Fight Back! with David Horowitz, which brought consumer issues into public awareness. The program aired for eighteen seasons in syndication.

In 1963, Horowitz opened the first Saigon News Bureau for NBC, and served as a network correspondent and cameraman during the Vietnam War.

Horowitz provided the only live television coverage of the 1971 earthquake epicentered in Sylmar, California, on a worldwide broadcast originating from the NBC studio parking lot in Burbank.

On August 19, 1987, during the afternoon news broadcast on KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, a gun-wielding mental patient got into the studio, and took Horowitz hostage live on the air. With the gun pressed at his side, Horowitz calmly read the gunman's statements on camera; unbeknownst to the gunman, the news feed had been taken off the air. It was later revealed that the gun was an empty BB gun, and the gunman set the gun down on the newsdesk, at which point anchorman John Beard quickly confiscated it. It led Horowitz to start a successful campaign to help ban "look-alike" toy guns in several states, including California and New York.

Horowitz made over forty appearances as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson would later satirize Horowitz with his character, "David Howitzer.” Horowitz was also a featured guest on shows hosted by Dinah Shore, Mike Douglas, John Davidson, Regis Philbin, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and Oprah Winfrey.

In addition to his television appearances, Horowitz wrote a syndicated newspaper column and published eight books. From 2002-2004, Horowitz was a member of the FCC's Consumer Advisory Board in Washington. He was a member of the Los Angeles Board of Directors and the National Board of Directors for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists from 2006-2009.

Horowitz died February 14, 2019, in Los Angeles, California. He was 81.