Allegations against Keillor made public
Minnesota Public Radio cut ties with radio show host
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Public Radio broke its silence about Garrison Keillor on Tuesday, saying it severed ties with the host of “A Prairie Home Companion” after a woman who worked for the show told MPR he subjected her to “dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents ... over a period of years” including “unwanted sexual touching,”
Keillor had told The Minneapolis Star Tribune Nov. 29 that MPR severed its ties with him after a single incident in which he placed his hand on a woman’s bare back.
But MPR president Jon McTaggart called Keillor’s story “misinformation,” explaining in a public statement Tuesday that the woman’s attorney detailed a number of alleged incidents in a 12-page letter to MPR. Dated Oct. 22, the letter included “excerpts of emails and written messages, requests for sexual contact and explicit descriptions of sexual communications and touching.”
MPR is not identifying the woman. A Star Tribune investigation has confirmed that she was a longtime writer for the show who worked closely with Keillor, and that she is one of several women who claim to have received inappropriate messages from the host.
According to a close family friend of the woman, Keillor’s behaviour was “disgusting” and involved “vulgar” sexual language. When she rejected Keillor’s unwanted advances, the friend said, the messages turned “threatening.”
“He is not the nice guy that all of his fans think he is,” said the man.
Keillor, in an email to the Star Tribune Tuesday night, criticized MPR for a “breach of good faith” by releasing details of the complaint while negotiating a settlement agreement with him.
“How to respond to so many untruths in a short space?” he wrote. “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 . ...
“If I am guilty of harassment, then every employee who stole a pencil is guilty of embezzlement. I’m an honest fiction writer and I will tell this story in a novel.”
Another longtime writer for the show said she wound up having a year-long affair with Keillor in 2007 and 2008 after exchanging emails with sexual overtones.
The writer said she received a $16,000 cheque from Keillor’s company, Prairie Home Productions, to keep quiet about the affair, but never cashed it because she didn’t want to agree to a nondisclosure agreement.
“By that time, I had already talked to some friends about what had happened,” said the woman, who agreed to speak about the relationship only if the newspaper agreed to withhold her name. “I wondered: Could I be sued for that? I thought $16,000 was a very small price to pay for me being wide open to lawsuits for the rest of my life, so I said ’No, thank you.’”
Her account was corroborated by another employee of the show.
Another former staffer said she received an email from Keillor a year or two after she stopped working for the show in which her married boss suggested it was a good night for a romantic stroll and sharing a kiss.
“It did feel a bit like fishing to me,” said the staff member. She said Keillor didn’t pursue her when she ignored the suggestion, and he never touched her inappropriately.
Neither of those women, however, were interviewed by MPR or its attorneys.
In an interview Tuesday, MPR’s president said the company was unaware that other women had accused Keillor of sexual misconduct.
McTaggart said MPR conducted its own internal review, then hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation. He declined to identify the firm. He said the firm was hired by MPR’s outside counsel, Karen G. Schanfield of Fredrikson & Byron.
“We were not conducting the investigation, we were not setting its scope and we are not responsible for it,” McTaggart said.
Schanfield could not be reached for comment.
Altogether, the Star Tribune identified 10 women who have worked with Keillor in recent years but were not interviewed by MPR or its attorneys during the company’s investigation of Keillor’s conduct.
“Why aren’t they talking to the people who have worked with (Garrison) for so many years?” said Sue Scott, an actress on “Prairie Home” for 24 years. “What kind of investigation is this? I think this has been handled horribly.”
Female staffers accused the company of waiting to investigate until the popular performer retired from “Prairie Home” in 2016.
“Everybody ignored it,” said Marguerite Harvey, who spent almost 30 years working on the show. “I think they liked their jobs . ... Garrison made Minnesota Public Radio. ‘Prairie Home Companion’ brought in money, which allowed them to do programming they wouldn’t have been able to do.”
MPR officials have praised “Prairie Home” as a fundraising magnet, helping public radio stations across the country raise millions of dollars during pledge drives.
McTaggart said MPR was not aware of any complaints against Keillor until August 2017, when a former MPR employee brought his concerns about a female coworker to the company. The male employee did not identify the co-worker, so MPR launched an internal investigation, McTaggart said. Two months later, he said, the company was contacted by an attorney representing the woman.
In his written statement, McTaggart said MPR gave Keillor every opportunity to respond to allegations and provide evidence in his defence.
The writer who said she had an affair with Keillor was flattered when she first got an email from him that included references to sex.
She admired her boss and loved his writing, and she was astonished by the amount of care he put into a simple email.
“Everything he writes is a beautiful piece of writing,” she said. “There is talent pouring out of him.”
She thought the references to sex were intended to pique her interest, to see if she would be interested in having an affair with a man twice her age. She was. She said the relationship was consensual, but she also felt pressure to say yes.
“I made some very bad decisions, but he is not blameless,” she said. “The question is: What constitutes a consensual relationship between a boss and his underlings?”
McTaggart said he was unaware of the woman’s allegations, but said her description of the relationship is troubling. “That would be inappropriate. We will not tolerate harassment or a misuse of power in any form. That is clear in our policy.”