CNA Staff, Aug 19, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).
Phil Donahue, a self-described “lapsed Catholic” who reinvented the daytime television talk-show format beginning in the 1960s, died Sunday at his home in New York at age 88.
Born in Cleveland in 1935 and raised in a Catholic family, Donahue attended an all-boys Catholic high school and the University of Notre Dame. He later dismissed the Church as “‘sexist,’ ‘racist,’ and ‘unnecessarily destructive,’ feelings that imbued many of his shows,” his New York Times obituary notes.
When “The Phil Donahue Show” debuted in 1967 on a Dayton, Ohio, TV station, Donahue encouraged audience participation in his interviews and discussions, an unusual practice at the time that was later copied by numerous other shows.
In nearly 30 years on the air and 6,000 episodes, Donohue frequently courted controversy, both in his choice of guests and in the topics he covered.
He was often critical of the Catholic Church into which he was baptized, especially amid the sexual abuse crisis. He first dealt with the sex abuse scandal in a 1988 episode and revisited it in later seasons of his show, Reuters reported.
In a 2002 interview with Oprah Winfrey — who has cited Donahue as a major influence on her — Donahue described an infamous episode of his show where he aired footage of an abortion procedure.
“If you look up outrage in the dictionary, there’s a picture of me. We once even filmed an abortion,” he said.
“Then we called the Archdiocese of Chicago, the pro-life people, and the pro-choice people, sat them in a room, and played the tape before going anywhere near the air with it. When I walked into the room after they’d seen it, half the people were crying,” he continued.
“The major grievance of the pro-life and Catholic Church folks was that the tape made abortion look easy. I said, ‘Well, that’s the procedure — 15 minutes.’ Their fear was that if we aired this, everybody would run out and get abortions. I said, ‘Look, this issue is splitting families. It’s at the center of America’s agenda.’ Somehow, we got to air that,” he recalled.
A self-described feminist, Donahue also supported same-sex marriage.
In a 2002 New York Times interview, Donahue said he still saw himself “as a Catholic. I will always be a Catholic.”
Donahue’s show was canceled in 1996 amid falling ratings, and an attempted revival of the show in 2002 was canceled after just six months. In 2024 President Joe Biden, a fellow Catholic, awarded Donahue the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Despite their many differences, Catholic League President Bill Donohue has fond memories of the legendary Irish-American Catholic television personality.
“I was a guest on Phil Donahue’s show for many years and I thoroughly enjoyed mixing it up with him,” Donohue recalled. “He told his producers on several occasions that he loved having me on even though we usually clashed. That made him unusual — he was not afraid of confronting a conservative. He was a real man. And I always appreciated his kindness. May he rest in peace.”
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America owes a debt to Oprah Winfrey.
It was the popularity of her show that finally forced the anti-Catholic bigot Donohue off the air.
Contrary to the effort to canonize Donahue in death by our immoral culture, my impression of him was that of a consummate narcissist whose antics on stage were insufferable. These icons of our culture have always found it easier and more appealing to the masses to tear down structures than to build them up. His place in our failed culture was brought home by a photo released of Biden awarding the Medal of Freedom to Donahue and in attendance werw other notables of his ilk like Pelosi & Co.
Say a prayer for him, have a Mass offered, and move on.
Golden Domers seem to be one extreme or the other. Fanatical Catholics or fanatical atheists. Little or no nuance.
Pity the people deluded by disgustingly demonic and deadly belief. Just as the devil does, Donahue speaks half truths: ‘Look, this issue [abortion] is splitting families….’ Ain’t that the half truth?!? Look and see, on TV, how EASY it is!
DNA from the mother comprises half of the baby’s unique person, and the father’s DNA comprises the other half. The parents choose to deny the unique person made in their image and God’s likeness of her/his personhood. As if he/she were less than the pronoun. Yet ‘it’ did exist, and parents will never forget the rip, the tear, the shred, their yes to the death of their shared family life.
Does God forget the murder, the destruction of His child? I don’t think so.
Killing something so little is a very simple and easy procedure. EXCEPT that it is not for the Catholic who believes in the creative goodness of God. A Catholic who does not believe this is a Catholic who lies.
That is the simple easy truth. Woe to those like Donahue through whom scandal, half truths, lies, and delusion come.
Looking back, I’d say Phil Donohue and Playboy what’s-his-name were two of the chief popularizers of the ’60s sexual revolution.
That’s disgusting. I had no idea Phil Donahue did that on his show.
It took 15 minutes or less to die in the gas chambers also. I suppose we’re expected to think that was easy too.
I’m glad I don’t watch TV.
Almighty God gave Phil Donahue 88 years to repent and amend his life. Too bad he squandered the numerous opportunities to do so. May Almighty God have mercy on his soul.
Will; Your 8/20 @ 7:07
He used to make a big deal out of the fact that he had gone to Notre Dame, so the press would always mention that when talking about him, and try to use that fact to make ND look bad if they could find an angle.
Take my word for it – for every clown like him there were – and still are – thousands who went there, worked hard, graduated and went out to make their mark on the world and try to make it a better place – they just don’t get noticed.