Acccording to the MPR statement on the matter: “Based on what we currently know, there are no similar allegations involving other staff.”
With the very limited information available this does make it seem like an overreaction. NPR has experienced a bit of fallout around an executive with a history and it’s possible that there’s a reactionary attitude in order to get out ahead of the scandal. It’s also possible that this was the first truly actionable thing to come across on him. Kinda like HR won’t let you fire the guy that everyone knows is a bum till you actually have proof that will insulate from a lawsuit.
I think his production company still owns all the recordings since they sell the broadcasts to American Public Media, who arranges for their broadcasts on Public Radio stations. I’m sure the archive will end up somewhere you’ll have to pay to listen to it, like satellite radio.
I can only think of one, the Conor Oberst story in 2014, and technically that isn’t quite the same since his career wasn’t ended by the accusation.
The thing with Keillor: I get that the vast majority of accusations are true and quite serious, that sexual assault and harassment is widespread, and that we should believe women. But in absence of a process that determines guilt or innocence, all we’ve got is mob rule.
I will find the accusation against Keillor more believable if more women come forward reporting that he harassed them
I like to think of Boing Boing as being my ‘home away from home’, in a fin de siécle Vienna coffeehouse sort of way.
Anyway, by and large, I like the crowd it attracts.
This breaks my heart, I listened to Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion from almost the time it first became a syndicated show. I’ve owned his books and seen him perform live, and even met him at a book signing afterwards. During our 3 minute conversation I found him odd, quirky, and shy - just like me. I patterned my public speaking style after his, and he was my inspiration to overcome many of the obstacles a shy person has.
I grew up in the 60’s in a very small, very rural Midwestern town, and his stories of Lake Woebegone always rang true - I could see all his characters in people I knew. There was our own version of the Sons of Knute Ice Melt contest, our Chatterbox Cafe was J&J Lunch, and our side track tap was called Chuck and Ralph’s.
I’m not making any excuses for him and if this is true then he is not the man I believed in and he deserves his firing and everything else that comes of it. I only hope that, somehow, the story is not what it seems. I have no heroes left …
Eventually, everyone can be found guity of doing something inappropriate. It doesn’t need to be sexual, either, though it seems sexual errors are the most revolting…but really, it is all human behavior. To err, is human, or something to that effect.
This is still something that seems to be a point of contention to a lot of people…they want to give children agency when it is convenient to explain away actions, but take it away when it gives adults more choice. I know in my city (midwest conservative) we stopped charging children (<18) with prostitution and trying to change the laws so that anyone that uses their services is charged as one would a molester.
You may note that no one has been calling for his imprisonment, and certainly not without a trial.
Blaming his firing on “mob rule” is ridiculous because the vast majority of the general public had no idea he had even been accused of sexual harassment until after he’d already been fired.
I am not blaming his firing on mob rule. NPR fired him to reduce liability before the story went public. The mob rule I am referring to is what is happening on this forum, e.g. calling him an asshole. Waiting until MPR finishes its investigation before passing judgment is basic human decency.
