httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ArBHZX1yHA
Citing “Inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him,” Minnesota Public Radio said Wednesday it has terminated its relationship with Garrison Keillor, the former host of “A Prairie Home Companion” who helped build MPR into a national powerhouse.
In an email to the Star Tribune on Wednesday, Keillor said, “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.”
Keillor even managed a joke of sorts: “Getting fired is a real distinction in broadcasting and I’ve waited fifty years for the honor. All of my heroes got fired. I only wish it could’ve been for something more heroic.”
Garrison Keillor speaking in 1994 about sexual harassment.
Keillor, 75, retired last year from his longtime radio show, but still produced “The Writer’s Almanac” for syndication by MPR’s parent company, St. Paul-based American Public Media.
Separate itself from the Pretty Good Goods online catalog, which sells Keillor merchandise, and the PrairieHome.org website.
At the show’s peak, Keillor drew 4 million listeners every week while serving as Minnesota’s cultural ambassador, with tales of the mythical Lake Wobegon that gently skewered the state’s strong work ethic, good-hearted earthiness and humble nature.
Coincidentally, Keillor defended Sen. Al Franken in a syndicated column this week after Los Angeles radio news anchor Leann Tweeden reported that he kissed and groped her without her consent during a 2006 USO tour, before Franken became senator.
Keillor also referred to the Franken controversy in an email to MPR News Wednesday that indicated another employee had made allegations; it was unclear whether that person was simply a witness to the same incident.