Despite having eight published books, 15 Emmys and over 40 appearances on late night television shows, David Horowitz (Medill MSJ ’61) is best known for his nationally syndicated television program “Fight Back! With David Horowitz.”

Horowitz died in 2019. During his lifetime, Horowitz hosted “Fight Back!” for nearly two decades as a consumer advocacy program that tested different products, empowering consumers to stand up for their rights. The “Fight Back!” brand also includes a radio program and newspaper articles. 

To keep Horowitz’s legacy alive, a recent addition to the “Fight Back!” brand has garnered attention: the social media profiles created by Horowitz’s daughter.

The creation of social media profiles under the name @WatchFightBack was an organic extension of public outreach, said daughter Amanda Horowitz (Medill MSJ ’19), who took over her father’s role of communicating the “Fight Back!” messaging.

“(The social media profiles were created) to be able to provide fans of the show with an opportunity to engage with the legacy content, and then also to introduce it to a new generation of fans who might not be familiar with it,” Amanda Horowitz said.  

Amanda Horowitz created the social media accounts at the end of December 2024, and the response was overwhelmingly positive, she said. In the account’s first week on TikTok, it received over a million views and had a 21% engagement rate on some videos, four times the social media industry standard for engagement, she said. 

As of Thursday, @WatchFightBack has over 76,000 likes on TikTok and over 10,000 followers across its social media profiles.

Since Amanda Horowitz “lived and breathed ‘Fight Back!,’” she finds it interesting to hear feedback from people who are just discovering it. 

“People say things like, ‘This is OG social media,’ or, ‘This is the original myth busters,’” Amanda Horowitz said. “It’s very interesting to me to hear people’s opinions who haven’t seen this content before, and then the people that do remember it are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember ‘Fight Back! with David Horowitz,’ ‘What a great show,’ ‘We’re so happy you’re back.’”

David Horowitz was the original consumer advocate in the United States, said Jeffrey Huberman, dean emeritus of the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at Bradley University, who worked with David Horowitz for years. 

“Fight Back!” became an effective rallying cry for millions of consumers to fight for their rights, Huberman said, adding that David Horowitz changed the modern day system of consumer advocacy and consumer rights.

“Because of his endeavors, the consumer industry itself changed in ways that we even take for granted today,” said Huberman. “The idea that things are tested for truth in advertising, for being able to fight back for your rights and get compensation, the fact that state governments and the federal government have offices of consumer protection all go back to David Horowitz and what he started.”

David Horowitz is also one of the pioneers of “infotainment,” the concept of providing information and making it entertaining, which was a strength of “Fight Back!” since its inception, Amanda Horowitz said.

Constant access to information through the internet and the rise of social media platforms, such as @WatchFightBack, have blurred the line between information and entertainment, Medill lecturer Ashir Badami said.

“There’s this very cyclical relationship between people having less attention and wanting to consume information at a higher rate and more of it, and the platforms [are] allowing for that to happen because it’s in their best interest to keep people engaged and on their specific platform,” Badami said. 

To keep up with the times, journalists can use social media to distribute content, find sources and learn about their audience engagement rates, Badami explained. 

But even though there are some potential benefits to social media usage, Badami warned that journalists have to be selective about the platforms where they publish their content and think about balancing visibility with distribution. 

Amanda Horowitz has already started thinking about the best platforms to use to disseminate her late father’s consumer advocacy messages, she said. On apps like TikTok, it can be hard to predict what content will be flagged as a community guidelines violation, she said. As a result, she said she has started to shift to YouTube, which she thinks is currently the friendliest platform for journalism.

No matter the platform, Amanda Horowitz said she is committed to delivering David’s wisdom. 

“Our intention is to provide our community with engaging content, and I’m committed to doing that,” Amanda Horowitz said. “I’m going to continue doing that and just problem solve these things along the way.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to include Amanda Horowitz’s graduation year.

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