Garrison Keillor Fired for Inappropriate Behavior, Minnesota Public Radio Cuts All Ties

Keillor Calls the Story ‘Complicated’

Garrison Keillor, who for more than two decades hosted “A Prairie Home Companion,” has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio for inappropriate behavior, the public radio station said Wednesday. MPR is also cutting all ties to Keillor, who retired from hosting the radio show in 2016.

“Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is terminating its contracts with Garrison Keillor and his private media companies after recently learning of allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” the company said in a statement.

Keillor, who is 75, “told The Associated Press of his firing in an email,” The AP reports. “In a follow-up statement, he said he was fired over ‘a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard.'”

The long-time radio host and humorist “wrote a syndicated column that ridiculed the idea that Sen. Al Franken should resign over allegations of sexual harassment,” the AP adds.

Keillor started his Saturday evening show 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” — in 1974. 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.

Minnesota Public Radio adds it “will end its business relationships with Mr. Keillor’s media companies effective immediately.”

By terminating the contracts, MPR and American Public Media (APM) will: 

* end distribution and broadcast of The Writer’s Almanac and rebroadcasts of The Best of A Prairie Home Companion hosted by Garrison Keillor; 

* change the name of APM’s weekly music and variety program hosted by Chris Thile; and, 

* separate from the Pretty Good Goods online catalog and the PrairieHome.org website.

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Image by Becky McCray via Flickr and a CC license

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