What Candice Bergen mess. Or, perhaps I should say, "Which Candice Bergen mess?"
Many years ago, CB was a spokesperson for the long distance company Sprint. She had that post for about 8 years. During that time she also starred in the TV series Murphy Brown.
On the show, her Murphy Brown character became a single mother, and did a considerable amount of mocking the importance of fathers.
This became somewhat controversial, so CB made all the talk show rounds and steadfastly upheld the views of her character, saying things like fathers are unnecessary and irrelevant, and that sort of thing.
Eventually, after considerable heat, she turned around and started to acknowledge the importance of fathers. By then, it was too late.