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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 5 March 2018
Ex-radio host Keillor hopes sex harassment charges will fade

PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — For- vey Weinstein.
mer radio host Garrison Keil- He said the controversy
lor said he hopes the sexual made him appreciate his
allegations against him are friends.
fading and believes Minne- "In the newspaper, they re-
sota Public Radio made a fer to you as a disgraced
grave mistake when it cut broadcaster. They refer to
ties with him. this as a scandal, but your
Keillor's comments followed true friends, and you don't
his first appearance before need that many of them,
an audience since the con- but you find out for abso-
troversy erupted in Novem- lute sure who they are in
ber, The Daily Courier in the first two weeks after all
Prescott, Arizona, reported. of this happens," he said.
MPR has said that a wom- In an extensive interview
an who worked with the with The Associated Press
station as a freelance con- last month, Keillor described
tributor accused Keillor of several sexually suggestive
dozens of sexually inappro- emails he exchanged with
priate incidents over sev- the woman — a former
eral years. freelance researcher for his In this July 20, 2015, file photo, Garrison Keillor, creator and host of "A Prairie Home Companion,"
During Keillor's Wednesday show — as "romantic writ- appears during an interview in St. Paul, Minn.
night show at Yavapai Col- ing" that never resulted in a Associated Press
lege in Prescott, the ex-host physical relationship.
of the once popular "A He also rejected the idea to the AP via her attorney go public. harassment allegations.
Prairie Home Companion" that because he was her and said that Keillor's pow- Keillor told the Courier said MPR announced in No-
joked about how the al- boss, and the driving force er over her job made her that since November, he's vember it would stop dis-
legations against him must of a hugely popular radio afraid to say no to him. The written a western play, a tributing Keillor's program
have been contagious in program, it could be inter- Associated Press does not Lake Wobegon screenplay "The Writer's Almanac" and
light of other scandals in- preted as sexual harass- typically name alleged vic- and a novella called "Un- would no longer rebroad-
volving former Rep. Al Fran- ment. tims of sexual harassment seemly Behavior," based cast "The Best of A Prairie
ken, Charlie Rose and Har- The woman responded unless they have chosen to on events surrounding the Home Companion."q