Logo

Garrison Keillor Responds to Allegations After New Details Are Released

Jan 24, 2018  •  Post A Comment

Garrison Keillor, the former host of Minnesota Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” answered allegations of sexual impropriety after MPR, which severed ties with Keillor back in November, released new details about the allegations against him.

“MPR said in a statement that Keillor was accused by a woman who worked on his ‘A Prairie Home Companion” radio show of dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents over several years, including requests for sexual contact and explicit sexual communications and touching,” The New York Post reports. “MPR said the woman, whom it has not identified, detailed the allegations in a 12-page letter that included excerpts of emails and written messages.”

Keillor responded to the latest details in a statement provided to the Star Tribune, writing: “How to respond to so many untruths in a short space? The woman who complained was a friend, had been hired as a freelance researcher, an employee of mine, not MPR’s, working a job that she did from home by email. I hardly ever saw her in the office. Our friendship continued in frequent emails about our kids and travel and family things that continued to my last show and beyond. She signed her emails “I love you” and she asked if her daughter could be hired to work here, and so forth. She attended the last show in L.A. She still features ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ prominently on her Facebook page.”

Keillor’s statement adds: “Her complaint was drawn up by her attorney, a highly selective and imaginative piece of work. MPR depended on the complaint, it never spoke to me or to the complainant.

“If I am guilty of harassment, then every employee who stole a pencil is guilty of embezzlement.”

3 Comments

  1. An odd response that contains no actual denial. The reference to stealing a pencil seems to admit that something happened.

  2. This is still clearly far from the full story, and the “details” alleged do not sound at all like the Weinstein, Spacey, etc. type of serial power abuse. There is a strong but not compelling urge to rush to judgment, and to lump together some very diverse cases. The biggest loss here could well be (especially if it persists) the hasty sidelining of one of America’s most insightful, witty and sensitive commentators, at a time when his voice is sorely needed.

  3. No woman (or man) should ever face any form of sexual or any other kind of job harassment. BUT..ANYONE facing these very difficult and dangerous accusations deserves the right to know the exact claims, confront his (or her) accusers and there needs to be some standard of evidence and proof exercised. Right now, we are facing a 21st Century McCarthy Era. A simple accusation ends a career and destroys a lifetime of work BEFORE anyone knows the truth. While many of these cases have been substantiated , some are questionable or maybe even false. Back in the 50’s calling someone a “Communist” or “Fellow Traveler” ended careers and destroyed lives. It took years for America to recover from this and during that time, we discovered how many of those accusations were false. Do we repeat our mistakes ??

Your Comment

Email (will not be published)