The sexual harassment/#MeToo tidal wave of 2017, begun by HarveyWeinstein’s reprehensible actions, swept away scores of householdcelebrities in the arts, media, government, and business. One ofthose caught up in the Weinstein aftermath was National PublicRadio’s Garrison Keillor. The accusations against Keillor, hisresponse to them, and the eventual end result were far differentand more subtle than those involved in the Weinstein case. Here’s arecap.

For four decades, Garrison Keillor held forth as NPR’s brighteststar. As the avuncular host of NPR’s most popular program, APrairie Home Companion, Keillor presided over a weeklyold-fashioned, homespun variety program of song, satire, soundeffects, and nostalgic good humor. It was heard by 4 millionlisteners a week on 700 public radio stations. Keillor was astoryteller, humorist, author, voice actor, and astute grammarian,all rolled into one creative, non-threatening radio host. The showtook place in Keillor’s imaginary little home-town of Lake Wobegon,where everybody knew everybody else. A Prairie Home Companion was“sponsored” by good old Powder Milk Biscuits and Ketchup. Its starsincluded private eye Guy Noir, a detective, voiced by Keillor, whogot into embarrassing—and often very funny—situations. The humorwas good-natured and harmless, and its host was more a trustedfriend than a radio personality. It was not an overstatement toconclude that the program put Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), fromwhich it originated, at the top of NPR’s offerings from 1974 to2016. As proof of the high esteem in which Keillor was held, he andhis show were parodied on The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, andhe was the subject of pop songs and book parodies. In 2006, RobertAltman directed a feature film, A Prairie Home Companion, starringKeillor as himself and an all-star cast including Meryl Streep,Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, andLindsay Lohan (Figure 6-7). One magazine profile called Keillor “agenius,” reminiscent of Mark Twain. But, despite such accolades,Keillor, true to his humble Minnesota heritage, was always low-keyand understated, never giving himself any billing or credit on hisweekly show. In fact, the only time Keillor’s name was evermentioned on A Prairie Home Companion was when a guest referred tohim. No wonder that when Keillor announced plans to retire in 2016,his final show drew 18,000 fans to the Hollywood Bowl inCalifornia, and President Obama called him after the broadcast. Inretirement, MPR kept Keillor on in an occasional on-air consultingcapacity.

In late November 2017, in the midst of the #MeToo movement, wordspread that Garrison Keillor had been charged with sexualharassment. The first to report the allegation was Garrison Keillorhimself, in an email to the Associated Press, which reported thathe had been fired by MPR over “a story that I think is moreinteresting and more complicated than the version MPR heard.” Hourslater, Minnesota Public Radio issued an announcement that it had,indeed, fired its iconic star due to allegations by someone withwhom Keillor had worked of inappropriate sexual behavior. MPR addedthat it also had hired an outside law firm “to investigate theallegations.” To many, investigating the alleged infraction afterfiring the alleged infractor seemed backwards. After MPR’sannouncement, Keillor again emailed a reporter to explain in moredetail, writing “I put my hand on a woman’s bare back. I meant topat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirtwas open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled. Iapologized. I sent her an email of apology later and she repliedthat she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We werefriends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyercalled.” Unaccustomed to the spotlight—and particularly shaky inthe face of nationwide, social media rebellion by legions ofKeillor fans—MPR was slow to respond. Finally, the president of thenetwork elaborated on the allegations against its former star,saying that it had received “multiple allegations related toGarrison’s behavior.” In response, Keillor insisted that the storyhe shared publicly was the only incident he could remember.

In the ensuing weeks and months, while Prairie Home Companionloyalists continued to lament the fall of their hero, GarrisonKeillor’s billings as a speaker around the country and additionalmedia opportunities generally dried up. In an environment dominatedby discussions of sexual harassment, hiring a highly visible personfacing such allegations wasn’t likely. MPR, facing continuedcriticism, said, in a statement, “We understand that some listenersare upset and know that the limited information we’ve madeavailable at this time may not seem to justify such a consequentialdecision. We want to assure that this decision honors the higheststandards they’ve come to expect from us.” For his part, GarrisonKeillor said he was disappointed at the company’s response to theallegations. But it was unlikely he would embrace an aggressivepublic relations campaign to clear his name. Rather, he wascharacteristically stoic and resigned. Summarized Keillor, “Mysituation is that I’ve worked extremely hard on a show that I lovefor almost 50 years, and somebody else can torch it in one morning,and so it’s all gone”

What do you think of MPR’s response to the complaintthat its former lead star was guilty of sexualharassment?

Had Garrison Keillor hired you to defend him, what wouldyou recommend he do?

Assume for a moment that Keillor’s explanation of whathe did was accurate. Given the strength of the #MeToo movement, doyou think, realistically, that Keillor could have changed publicopinion about the allegations against him?