Garrison Keillor Fired From Minnesota Public Radio Amid Allegations of Improper Behavior

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_facto...ublic_radio_amid_allegations_of_improper.html

Garrison Keillor Fired From Minnesota Public Radio Amid Allegations of Improper Behavior
By Christina Cauterucci

Garrison Keillor on October 4, 2012 in New York City.

Andy Kropa/Getty Images for Norman Mailer Center

“A Prairie Home Companion” creator Garrison Keillor announced Wednesday that he has been fired from Minnesota Public Radio amid allegations of inappropriate actions toward a co-worker, making him the second round-spectacled nerd from Minnesota to come under fire in recent weeks for workplace misconduct. Keillor hosted the wry Midwestern variety program from its debut in 1974 until 2016.

CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
Christina Cauterucci is a Slatestaff writer.

The Grammy Award–winner emailed the Associated Press with both the news of his firing and a bit of a defense: The story of his alleged misdeeds is “more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard,” Keillor wrote.

Just one day ago, in the Washington Post, Keillor published a defense of fellow Minnesotan Al Franken, who has been accused of sexual harassment and nonconsensual touching by several women. Franken participated in USO tours, where some alleged harassment and groping took place, “from deep in his heart, out of patriotism,” Keillor wrote. The sexist jokes Franken made were “broad comedy of a sort that goes back to the Middle Ages,” employed by comics as revered as Shakespeare and Bob Hope. Calls for Franken to resign are “pure absurdity,” Keillor contended, that could lead to “a code of public deadliness.” Keillor also managed to pooh-pooh efforts to rename landmarks christened for enslavers and other violent, racist historic figures in the characteristically rambling piece—arguing, perhaps, that the public should forgive and forget the vast majority of trespasses committed by famous men.

Perhaps he was worried about his own legacy, which is already crumbling fast. NPR’s David Folkenflik reported on Wednesday that Minnesota Public Radio will yank all past Keillor-hosted “A Prairie Home Companion” episodes off the air and rename the four-decade-old program entirely.

Considering Keillor’s immense popularity among public radio diehards, this dramatic break suggests that the allegations against Keillor are severe. In a statement, a Minnesota Public Radio representative said the station was informed of the allegations in October and hired a law firm to conduct an independent investigation. “Based on what we currently know, there are no similar allegations involving other staff,” the statement said.

Keillor once brought up the scourge of sexual harassment in an odd address at the National Press Club in 1994. “We should be careful…not to make the world so fine and good that you and I can’t enjoy living in it,” he said. “A world in which there is no sexual harassment at all is a world in which there will not be any flirtation.” He made the same joke in his 2006 book, Homegrown Democrat. Keillor has not yet indicated whether the “interesting” and “complicated” situation that led to his firing involved flirtation, sexual harassment, or both.

Update, Nov. 29, 2017: In an email to the Star Tribune, Keillor gave a more detailed account of why he claims he was fired:

I put my hand on a woman’s bare back. I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.

 

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Here’s why the Garrison Keillor allegations stand out




By Abby Ohlheiser December 1
Garrison Keillor, founder of ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’ fired after allegations of improper behavior]

In the weeks since the New York Times and the New Yorker first reported several accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Harvey Weinstein, a wave of victims have told stories about powerful men who allegedly used their positions of power to get away with sexual misconduct. Hours before Keillor was fired, NBC announced that it was parting ways with “Today” show host Matt Lauer over alleged inappropriate sexual behavior.

6:39

The Accused: A running list of sexual misconduct allegations
After the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, more women and men have come forward against a growing list of well-known male figures.(Erin Patrick O'Connor, Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)


But Keillor’s response stands out as unusual for a person accused of improper conduct. In the 24 hours after his firing, he has spoken again and again about the allegations against him. So as a result, since MPR hasn’t shared specifics and the alleged victim hasn’t spoken to the press, the only one publicly telling the story of what Keillor did is Keillor himself. And many of Keillor’s biggest fans have chosen to believe the master storyteller.

Last year, Keillor retired from the show that made him — and to a great degree, MPR — famous. “A Prairie Home Companion” is still on air with a new host. But a month after learning of the allegations against Keillor, the public radio network has responded by appearing to re-create themselves as if Keillor never existed. On Wednesday, MPR said “A Prairie Home Companion” will get a new name. MPR will stop broadcasting old episodes of the show that Keillor hosted, and the station ended an agreement to broadcast and distribute Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac.”

Others followed suit: Keillor has lost his weekly column with The Washington Post syndicate for, it said in a statement, failing to disclose that he was under investigation when he penned his latest column in defense of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) — who faces several accusations of improper conduct of his own. Several live performances have been canceled. Keillor has made clear his belief that he deserves none of these consequences.

Just after MPR’s announcement, which mentioned the alleged victim was “an individual who worked with him,” Keillor emailed another reporter to give his version of an incident:

“I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he wrote. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I apologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”

On Thursday, MPR told the Associated Press that the public radio organization had received “a formal complaint from an individual that includes multiple allegations related to Garrison’s behavior.” In a follow-up interview with the AP, Keillor clarified that he hasn’t seen the allegations MPR is investigating and that the story he shared publicly was the “only incident he could remember.” (The Post has emailed Keillor and has not heard back.)

After his Wednesday show in Pittsfield, Mass., was canceled, Keillor held court at a local restaurant, where he told a reporter for the Berkshire Eagle that he found the whole situation “bewildering.”

“I don’t think that people should talk out of bewilderment,” he said. “My situation is that I’ve worked extremely hard on a show that I love for almost 50 years, and somebody else can torch it in one morning, and so it’s all gone. And it’s a difficult thing to discuss.”

The Berkshire Eagle also reported that two people stopped by the table to tell Keillor they supported him:

“Listen, I think you’re amazing,” one said. “I just want to say: Don’t stop telling your stories,” said another.

More fans weighed in on Thursday afternoon, when MPR news host Tom Weber opened up the station’s phone lines and email inboxes to its listeners. The majority of callers and emailers were defensive of Keillor and critical of MPR’s decision to address the accusation by cutting ties with the humorist.

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A man named Michael wrote in that “Keillor was convicted without a trial,” and that he would never give a dime again to the station. Charlene in Golden Valley was ending her membership with the station for “turning [Keillor] into a criminal.” Nan told the station it should be ashamed of itself. Another emailer used language that was unsuited to a radio broadcast.

Not everyone was swayed. Julie in Minneapolis said she was a longtime fan of Keillor but had long been troubled by what she described as “sexist” comments in his past work. Tom called in to chide other listeners for failing to discuss the harm caused to Keillor’s alleged victim. Lauren in St. Paul hoped that Keillor’s fans would learn from this that “your heroes might not be as great as they seem,” and that “it’s very obvious that there are men in power who are not very conscious of how they are towards women.”

According to MPR, dozens of listeners have said they will cancel their memberships over Keillor’s firing. But another listener wrote in to say they were “donating [to MPR] today to counteract some Keillor fanboy out there.”

“We understand that some listeners are upset and know that the limited information we’ve made available at this time may not seem to justify such a consequential decision,” MPR spokeswoman Angie Andresen said in a statement to the Associated Press on Thursday. “We want to assure that this decision honors the highest standards they’ve come to expect from us.”

 

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As their relationship ends, Garrison Keillor and MPR both come under fire
On social media and elsewhere, longtime MPR supporters are expressing confusion or anger.
By Neal Justin Star Tribune

DECEMBER 2, 2017 — 8:33PM

LEILA NAVIDI • STAR TRIBUNE
In this May 21, 2016 photo, Garrison Keillor appears during a live broadcast for "A Prairie Home Companion" at the State Theatre in Minneapolis. Keillor said Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017, he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior.

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stepped away from “A Prairie Home Companion” 16 months ago, he continued to juggle a full schedule of live shows, various writing projects and his status as a neighborly icon. All now are in peril after allegations of inappropriate behavior toward a co-worker went public Wednesday.

Keillor’s performances for the rest of 2017 have been scrapped, along with his only scheduled Twin Cities appearance, next February. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., has donated $5,350 in contributions from Keillor to a center for abuse victims. The Washington Post dropped his column. An airport in Eugene, Ore., has removed his picture from an exhibit. Popular podcast host Nora McInerny slammed the 75-year-old humorist in an essay for Time.com called “Let’s Leave Garrison Keillor in the Past Where He Belongs.”

Macalester College, which hosted the first broadcast of “Prairie” in 1974 and owns the space occupied by Keillor’s Common Good bookstore, won’t comment on the future of its lease. Grove Press declined to say whether it still plans to publish Keillor’s latest book, a collection of limericks slated for May.

On Thanksgiving, Keillor told Facebook followers that he was going through the final proofs of a new book — perhaps his long-anticipated memoir — and that he had just returned from the Mayo Clinic with “good statistics for an old guy.”

“I am lucky beyond words,” he wrote.

His words Friday were not so rosy. “I’ve been going through my memoir and removing Minnesota Public Radio from it,” he wrote in a post he later deleted. “I never went to work there in 1969, never did a morning show, and Prairie Home Companion simply existed without any organization. Removing MPR makes room for other happier things and if I never worked for them, they can’t fire me.”


A book updated to include details of his downfall could end up being a bestseller. But sales of anything else with Keillor’s name on the spine may suffer.

“I can’t help but think it’s going to affect his future as an author,” said Claire Kirch, a senior correspondent for Publishers Weekly. “There are just too many questions about what exactly happened.”

Bill O’Reilly, fired from Fox News after numerous sexual allegations, has kept his name on the bestsellers list. But “Killing England,” his first book since his ouster, moved 64,723 copies in its first week, far below the 100,000-plus heights achieved by his previous five “Killing” titles.

But loyal fans are probably more concerned about Keillor’s emotional state.

“I am so sorry. I am a wreck,” he said Thursday in response to a Facebook posting from a woman disappointed that a performance had been canceled. “I could not imagine walking onto a stage with people watching. It’s heartbreaking and I worry about my family and it’s painful to walk through an airport and people look and whisper and don’t speak to me. I need to put my life back together.”


If Keillor comes across as a victim, it’s largely because the public has heard only his side of the story. “I put my hand on a woman’s bare back,” he said in an e-mail to the Star Tribune Wednesday. “I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. I sent her an e-mail of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.”

MPR has declined to offer an alternative version of events or to make its top executives available for interviews, leaving some to believe the punishment outweighed the crime.

On social media and elsewhere, longtime MPR supporters are expressing confusion or anger. As of late Thursday afternoon, the network had received 153 cancellation requests from its 133,000 members, according to MPR News.

Jackie Quiram, a listener from Chisago City, called the decision a disservice to Minnesota. “I think they’re hurting all of us by throwing him under the bus,” she said. “This could be a knee-jerk reaction, but if I won the lottery tomorrow, they wouldn’t be on my list.”

A few voiced support for the decision. “I’ll be contributing to MPR for the first time in many years because of this decision,” wrote one commenter on MPR News’ Facebook page.


MPR’s director of communications, Angie Andresen, said Friday that her organization would like to share more information, but to do so would be a breach of confidentiality that might deter potential victims or witnesses of abuse from coming forward. “We understand that some listeners are upset,” she said. “We’ve also heard from listeners and members who appreciate the decision and understand the importance of confidentiality.”

As part of the divorce from its marquee figure, MPR has canceled Keillor’s daily feature “The Writer’s Almanac” and will no longer offer rebroadcasts of “Prairie Home.” That program, for the moment at least, is being called “The Show With Chris Thile” — putting even more weight on Keillor’s hand-picked replacement.

Georgia Public Radio vice president Tanya Ott hopes her audience will understand the changes. “I’m personally excited about the opportunity this provides Chris to really brand and reshape the show in a way that will allow it to grow audience and reflect a diversity of perspective that is so valuable in these times.”

George John, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, predicts that MPR will be just fine. “It’s a short, sharp negative thing and people come out of it,” he said. “It’s not a heavy stone around your neck that you drag around for years.” John said he’s even optimistic that NBC’s “Today” show will recover from its ouster of co-host Matt Lauer last week over what appear to be more serious allegations.

“These transitions are not as hard as we think, even when it’s people at the top, provided whatever bad action has been rectified,” he said. Keillor “is an individual. Individuals do all kinds of stuff. You don’t normally hold the organization responsible for an act of an individual. He’s not even the CEO. He’s a talent. They can seal it off and they can recover from it.”


Staff writer Jackie Crosby contributed to this report.

http://www.startribune.com/garrison-keillor-mpr-both-come-under-fire/461555363/

 

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Thile addresses Keillor news during New York show
Arts & CulturePeter Cox · Dec 2, 2017

Audience members leave The Town Hall in New York on Dec. 2, 2017, following a broadcast of The Show with Chris Thile. Mara Silvers for MPR News
MPR spokesperson said there is a formal complaint from an individual that includes multiple allegations.

Thile also addressed, indirectly, the issues in the news.

"Today we are in the middle of a national movement which I believe represents progress," he said. "We're recognizing the harmful power imbalance that women have had to endure for so long in our culture. My sincere hope is that with awareness will come improvement."

Thile's monologue ended where many on the show have ended, with music.

"As for this show, I want it to be a place for us to gather around, hear great music, laugh together, reflect and gain respite from our weekly troubles. People are capable of such beauty. I aim to bring some of it to on the radio every Saturday," he said.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/12/02/thile-addresses-keillor-news

 

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