Garrison Keillor loses radio contract over misconduct allegation

The beloved radio icon and host of 'A Prairie Home Companion' said he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior in the workplace.

|
Jim Mone/AP/File
Garrison Keillor, creator and host of 'A Prairie Home Companion,' appears during an interview in St. Paul, Minn., on July 20, 2015. Mr. Keillor said on Nov. 29, 2017, he has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of improper behavior.

Garrison Keillor, whose stories of small-town characters entertained legions of public radio listeners for 40 years on "A Prairie Home Companion," became another celebrity felled by allegations of workplace misconduct when Minnesota Public Radio terminated his contracts.

The homegrown humorist told The Associated Press Wednesday he was fired over "a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard." Mr. Keillor didn't detail the allegation to AP, but he later told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that he had put his hand on a woman's bare back when trying to console her.

"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," Keillor told the newspaper in an email. "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."

MPR said only that it received allegations of "inappropriate behavior" against Keillor last month involving one person who worked with him during his time hosting "A Prairie Home Companion." Keillor retired as host of the radio variety show last year, but continued to work for MPR on various projects.

MPR said it had received no other complaints but had retained an outside law firm that was continuing to investigate.

Later Wednesday, Keillor gave a statement to MPR News saying he had to "respect the privacy of the two employees who have made the allegations." A spokeswoman for MPR's corporate arm didn't immediately respond to questions from AP on whether Keillor was accused of bad behavior with more than one person.

Keillor's hand-picked successor to host the show, mandolinist Chris Thile, tweeted Wednesday he was "in shock" after Keillor's firing. Mr. Thile had been a frequent musical guest on the show and said he knew nothing about the allegation, adding: "I trust that the proper steps are being taken."

Sue Scott, who worked on the show as a voice actor for 24 years with Keillor, told the AP she was stunned. She said she saw no evidence of inappropriate behavior from Keillor.

Fans also were shocked. Cindy Dina, of the Minneapolis suburb of Forest Lake, said she frequently listened when Keillor hosted the show and admired him, saying the Minnesota native was "iconic."

"It's just one more, wow," she said, adding that she hoped the continuous allegations against high-profile men would send a strong message to all men.

Keillor's storytelling earned him comparisons with Mark Twain and Will Rogers. His 1985 best-selling book, "Lake Wobegon Days," landed him on the cover of Time magazine.

"A Prairie Home Companion" was heard by nearly 4 million listeners a week on nearly 700 public radio stations across the United States the year before Keillor left as host. The inaugural show – attended by about a dozen people at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 6, 1974 – is in the Library of Congress' national registry of historic sound recordings.

On Wednesday, Keillor didn't say when the incident with the woman occurred. In his statement to AP, Keillor said it was "poetic irony to be knocked off the air by a story, having told so many of them myself."

"But I'm 75 and don't have any interest in arguing about this. And I cannot in conscience bring danger to a great organization I've worked hard for since 1969."

His separation from MPR came just days after Keillor, an avowed Democrat, wrote a syndicated column that ridiculed the idea that Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) should resign over allegations of sexual harassment.

MPR said it would rename the show now hosted by Thile and end distribution of "The Writer's Almanac," Keillor's daily reading of a poem and telling of literary events. MPR also plans to end rebroadcasts of "The Best of A Prairie Home Companion" hosted by Keillor.

Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" aired on Saturdays, featuring tales of his fictional Minnesota hometown of Lake Wobegon "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

The show featured musical acts, folksy humor, parody ads for fake products such as Powdermilk Biscuits and the centerpiece: Keillor delivering a seemingly off-the-cuff monologue, "The News From Lake Wobegon," in his rich baritone voice.

He also has been working on a Lake Wobegon screenplay and a memoir about growing up in Minnesota.

"A person could not hope for more than what I was given," Keillor said in his statement Wednesday to AP.

Keillor was scheduled to appear Wednesday evening at a theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, along with the folk duo Robin and Linda Williams, but the show was canceled.

A couple of hours later at a Pittsfield restaurant, he told The Berkshire Eagle that it's "bewildering" that he worked on a show he loved for decades, and "somebody else can torch it in one morning."

This story was reported by The Associated Press. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Garrison Keillor loses radio contract over misconduct allegation
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2017/1130/Garrison-Keillor-loses-radio-contract-over-misconduct-allegation
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe