Two years after renowned Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor lost his job due to multiple allegations of sexual harassment, he’s back in the limelight. This time he’s being featured in a Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine.
The return has generated instant controversy. One prominent Minnesotan author and columnist has decided to step down from her position at Mpls. St.Paul Magazine over the upcoming article.
Author Nora McInerny claimed Keillor hasn’t done enough to warrant returning to the limelight.
McInerny, who had a byline at the magazine, decided to step away from her job over the outlet’s upcoming piece on A Prairie Home Companion host Keillor. Local newspaper City Pages reported that “on Monday, McInerny took to Twitter to announce she’d no longer be working with the Twin Cities lifestyle magazine. The reason, she said, was because of its January 2020 cover story” which centered on the former MPR host.
Keillor famously “got the boot” from MPR back in 2017 for “inappropriate behavior.” Initially, he defended himself as if this was a one-time incident. He protested in a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, writing, “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.”
Though a more thorough MPR investigation revealed that Keillor — a long-time Democrat —had a “years long history” of inappropriate behavior and he was let go. As NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham noted, Keillor’s fate was ironic considering he used to mock the marital foibles of prominent conservatives. In 1996, he famously criticized Newt Gingrich in rhyme, saying, “don’t think a sense of style conceals your escapades / Don’t vote to impeach Bill Clinton while shacking up with Congressional aides.”
McInerny posted her decision to leave Mpls.St.Paul Magazine on Twitter, claiming that the Keillor story — titled “Hindsight 20/20” — was a “privilege afforded to a certain kind of man.”
The columnist elaborated that if the paper is going to “prioritize the documentation of a powerful man because of his *art*... We confirm that HE is more interesting, more worth documenting and analyzing, than the impact of his actions.”
McInerney continued to lay into both Keillor and paper, tweeting, “This cover is proof that no matter how effective #MeToo and #TimesUp have been in some cases, no matter how many people and institutions say ‘we won’t tolerate this kind of behavior’ -- they DO tolerate it!”
Despite the strong condemnation, the paper’s editor-in chief Jayne Olson told City Pages that McInerney’s statement “hasn’t changed the magazine’s feelings on deciding to run Keillor on the cover.” She claimed “subscribers and newsstand buyers” will be the ones who decide if the piece is “compelling or relevant.”
