A few times on this blog I have referenced Garrison Keillor and/or Prairie Home Companion.
- From 2006: Mama Tried, reworked by Garrison Keillor
- From 2004: Your friend: the FBI
My link to the 2006 show is broken. Apparently everything the 75-year-old Keillor did has now been stuffed down a memory hole and the replacement is not very funny, e.g., “Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) is terminating its contracts with Garrison Keillor and his private media companies after recently learning of allegations of his inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him.” (YouTube hasn’t been thoroughly scrubbed yet, though, here’s an example.)
I will miss a June 2, 2007 show featuring Yvonne Freese, a teenager at the time, singing “God Help the Outcasts” (template used for a song to entertain the toddlers: “Mindy the Crippler”).
Readers: What will you miss about Garrison Keillor? Maybe this blog post will one day be the only Web-based evidence of his existence.
[Separately, does it make sense that it is easier to find sermons by Anwar al-Awlaki than TV or radio shows associated with those accused of mixing sex and business?]
I never cared for him. I found him pretentious and condescending to the area he was satirizing, and really disliked his singing voice. I also believe that he may be the whitest person in the United States.
Scott: If you’re under 50 (or 60?), of course you hate him! You can’t believe the howls of protest when I flipped on WGBH radio here in Boston while driving a couple of MIT undergrads out to Hanscom Field on a Sunday. It was rebroadcast time for Prairie Home Companion and they were appalled that anyone would wear out the ether with it.
But this post is supposed to be for comments from those who will miss at least something about the guy and his shows.
Well, that’s the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are offended, all the men are molesters, and all the children are Somali.
“I also believe that he may be the whitest person in the United States.”
What’s that supposed to mean ? That all “white persons” are Nazis and Keillor is an American Hitler by virtue of being the “whitest” of them all ?
How do you measure the degree of whiteness (aka evilness) ?
Garrison who? I have searched the archives and there is no such person. He never existed. Stop confusing us with nonsense, comrade.
I both enjoyed and got bored by Prairie Home. It was just never quite my cup of ~~tea~~ lutefisk.
Keillor, Franken (who I shall miss much much more than Keillor) are in many ways hoist by their own petard.
What is happening to them, right or wrongly, is what they seem to have endorsed happening to others.
Hashtag Hubris.
OTOH, I’ve seen some crazy conspiracy theories laying all this down as godly retribution to the patriarchal men in media, politics and Hollywood that spurned, defied, misogynistically hated Hillary and womenand worked to undo her, and I actually love this theory that places Hillary as the Godfather, or in my vision, maybe Chelsea as Michael, settling the family business.
Can’t you see Chelsea “‘In five years the Clinton family will be completely legitimate.” And Chelsea, wringing her hands, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in!”
#GodfatherIV
P.S. Sincere no disrespect to Chelsea intended, I just think it makes for a wonder Great American Novel.
I would just like to pray for a moment that neither Click nor Clack were molesters.
Some day this will be remembered as a time when the news media went crazy destroying men with allegations of inappropriate behavior, whatever that is.
Keillor? The guy who dumped his frumpy wife for the hot Danish exchange student…?
Since he stopped broadcasting years ago, there’s nothing to miss. Fortunately, only wealthy prominent men are getting sacked. Being luckier in fitness than finances & unprominent makes men strangely appropriately conducted.
It is a damn shame. If I listen to the pop radio station’s treatment of women as objects to be used and compare to PHC, surely the pop crap inspires more harm to women.
> Apparently everything the 75-year-old Keillor did has
> now been stuffed down a memory hole
‘With every new arrest, people went through their books and burned the works of disgraced leaders in their stoves. In new apartment buildings, which had central heating instead of stoves, forbidden books, personal diaries, correspondence and other “subversive literature” had to be cut up in pieces with scissors and thrown down the toilet.’
– from Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam. Today it’s far more convenient than that, to edit the unperson out of electronic documents. Here’s to progress!
philg: As a society we have many legal and social limits on workplace behavior and on public behavior more generally. The fact that you enjoy Mr. Keillor’s show does not mean he gets to cross those lines while making it. We could, of course, have a discussion about where exactly to place those lines, but that is a subject has so far been avoided in this forum.
I bet Scott Siegling is white too… it’s this kind of self-hating that indicates we’re done for and we can longer have nice things on account of perceived prejudice.
Cui prodest?
Let the struggle and self-criticism sessions start.
There has to be action against predation. Only predators, like our president, want to live in a world where predation is unpunished. That’s why our President is such a thing that attracts flies. But I’ve seen many women working feminist issues to advance their careers, so much so that it is more the rule than the exception–that’s predation too.
He is (was?) awful to the point of nauseating. Never been happier to see a broadcast end than PHC/GK. The new PHC is even worse, so maybe NEW PHC can fail soon on its own merit as entertainment.
I come from Lake Woebegone, more or less. I loved his stuff for decades. I am angry and frightened about what’s happening. This purge is insane and terrifying. Lord Palmerston’s comment above nails it.
Having said that, it is certainly possible that he deserved to be fired. We don’t know yet what he did.
Tiresome Neal is at it again.
“This purge is insane and terrifying”
To me it looks more like we have suddenly started working off a backlog which gives an exaggerated impression of the incidence rate.
Two questions that seem pertinent to me:
1. Does the punishment fit the crime? We don’t know, but it seems like a question that should be asked. The punishment here is to have 40 years of work instantly removed, and to be banned from all future performances. Wow, that was some crime… but, apparently, not enough of a crime to rise to criminal culpability. Hmm. I’m not trying to excuse poor behavior, but, how about fining the guy? Or giving him a temporary suspension? If those weren’t options, why not?
2. Is there no separation between the artist and his art? Regardless of whether you like or hate Keillor’s art, as a general principle, where else in life do we throw out an artist’s art because we find out he’s not such a nice guy? Do we throw out Mozart’s music because he was a little shit? Do we not listen to Beethoven because he once grabbed a waitress’s ass? Of course not. The stories of Picasso and Gauguin et al are legendary. We continue to admire the art while recognizing the limitations of the artist as a person. So why is Keillor banished from the airwaves? This is the part that smells like a witch hunt to me.
Disclaimer: I have a love/hate relationship with PHC having listened to it off and on for 30 years. It was as diverse as mashed potatoes, Keillor could come off as incredibly smug and pandering and hypocritical, and the show’s other limitations were well known. It probably went on a good 10 years too long. But at its best, it was better than radio than all other programming combined. I mean, c’mon, what other show was introducing new (and great) musical performers, reading poetry, telling stories, poking fun… and doing it fresh every single week?
neal: “To me it looks more like we have suddenly started working off a backlog which gives an exaggerated impression of the incidence rate.”
Who is “we”?
Asking for a friend.
G. Ranma: “We” is U.S. society in general. “We” apparently ignored this behavior for decades which created the “backlog”.
One thing that I think is weird is that some of these are truly awful (nonconsensual sex) and some of these seem quite a bit less dire (some piggish stuff or a clumsy failed pass a decade ago) yet the universal reaction seems to be “we are cutting all ties”. Is this just a reflection on our litigious society? Nobody is getting a reprimand and a months’ suspension? (I realize a lot of these guys are independently wealthy now, so maybe the feeling is that that’s not adequate punishment)
SuperMike: In many (most?) of these cases, the men aren’t really losing their jobs for what they’ve done; they are losing their jobs because what they did (or allegedly did) has reduced the value of their brand.
His back-rape of that woman needs punishment. His de-personing is just the beginning.
I was thinking that the saying should be
“Hell hath no fury like women scorned.” rather than “a woman”.
And that this spate of belated accusations is because of HRC’s defeat.
But, upon reflection I think not.
What actually happened was Roy Moore got called out for terrible
sexual predation on a 14 year old girl that had been kept secret for
many years and other assaults on other girls much younger
than himself, because he was in law enforcement when it occurred,
allowing him to cow his victims into silence (a second crime actually).
He and his allies fought back using the now standard technique of
accusing others of nearly the same thing–the technique of water muddying.
In the
ensuing tidal wave of press coverage, many women who had been silent
found the courage to speak up about what had happened to them with other predators who are now well known personalities. Of course, in the vast reservoir of such behaviors not even one in a million will become known. Democrats,
eager to embarrass the president, who, as a well-known sexual predator that
has never been brought to book for his behavior (crimes), makes a particularly
despicable human being (which further infuriates the HRC crowd),
instinctively realized that showing no mercy to
the predators on the the Democratic side, even when the predation was minor in comparison to Moore and the president, would throw a spotlight on the president’s sexual behavior no matter what rock he crawled under.
Hence the cascade of allegations, and punishments, over punishments, (and for Moore and the President, non-punishments).
If anyone deserves summary dismissal, it’s MPR’s executives and lawyers. In their panic to protect their brand (and to cover their own arses) in a time of hysteria, they decided to take unprecedented measures amounting to an Orwellian vaporization of Garrison Keillor. They also decided to withhold any information about the presumably heinous offenses that made such extreme action necessary, offering only a vague information-free statement about “inappropriate behavior.”
Keillor himself then stepped into the void, describing an incident that, while probably not “appropriate” or right, suggested nothing that should merit such extreme sanction. MPR remains silent, other than apparently acknowledging the action was a result of of a single incident. In response to apparently unexpected public outcry over their actions, MPR now seem to be inviting the public to phone in any dirt (substantiated, truthful, or otherwise) that might help them vindicate their decision.
I suspect that ultimately MPR’s panicked attempt at self-protection will do more harm to their brand than anything Keillor may have done. In particular, renaming their iconic program will continually call attention to the “incident” and MPR’s rash response to it, and bring even more attention to the unperson they were hoping to vaporize. And worse, MPR’s panic may harm women: By contributing to the current hysteria surrounding pervasive sexual harassment, it may impair or delay the creation and implementation of genuine measures to make workplaces safe.
Sexual predators indeed need to be held accountable for their offenses. But so do executives and lawyers whose mindless hysteria damages their companies, and perhaps even exacerbates the problem they’re attempting to address.
I loved the show and I hate this rush to judgement. The accusation shocked me. A man who seemed to shun conversation and eye contact unless he was on stage. I think the complete “disassociation” with him by MPR was stupid for many reasons. Theile will not last 3 years. He is talented, but it’s the voice we all loved that is missing.
Saturday nights will have a void for awhile.
Oh no! That Mama Tried thing was classic.
He didn’t do anything inappropriate. Based on what he what he says happened, it was nothing. What is the victims side of the story anyway?