TV & VIDEO - April 4, 1989

Cardinal John O’Connor says TV has become “a radioactive desert of filth” and networks should begin campaigns to keep objectionable material off the air. His remarks at St. Patrick’s Cathedral came as he chastised a New York television station for repeating a comment reportedly made by comedian Robin Williams. According to O’Connor, WNBC-TV critic Pia Lindstrom said Williams told her at the Academy Awards that his girlfriend, Marsha Garces, was going to have a baby and he intended to make a movie about the pregnancy called “Fetal Attraction.” O’Connor found the joke “gross bad taste, in the least” and he was particularly upset that the two news anchors laughed at the joke. “We used to call television a wasteland. Now it has become a radioactive desert of filth and materialism,” the cardinal said. WNBC-TV news director Terry Baker had no comment on the cardinal’s remarks.