Hours After Defending Al Franken, NPR's Garrison Keillor Fired For Sexual Misconduct

Less than fifteen hours after publishing a Washington Post op-ed calling it “absurd” to fire Al Franken, NPR’s Garrison Keillor has been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over sexually inappropriate behavior.

According to the Associated Press, "BREAKING: Garrison Keillor says he's been fired by Minnesota Public Radio over allegations of inappropriate behavior." At 8 p.m. Tuesday night, the Washington Post ran his op-ed entitled, "Al Franken should resign? That's absurd."

Update: Washington Post has updated Keillor's piece defending Al Franken from being fired.

Keillor, the longtime host of NPR's "Prairie Home Campanion," told The Associated Press of his firing in an email. In a later statement, Keillor said he was fired over "a story that I think is more interesting and more complicated than the version MPR heard." Keillor was made famous for creating the fictional Minnesota Lake Wobegon as the setting for a wide ranging set of tales both written and told over the NPR airwaves in his syndicated show.

Keillor, 75, retired as host of his long-running public radio variety show in 2016. His hand-picked successor, mandolinist Chris Thile, is in his second season as the "A Prairie Home Companion" host.

This comes just hours after Keillor defended Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken from his own sexual misconduct allegations, for which he has been on an apology tour through Congress.

"On the flight home, in a spirit of low comedy, Al ogled Miss Tweeden and pretended to grab her and a picture was taken. Eleven years later, a talk show host in LA, she goes public, and there is talk of resignation. This is pure absurdity, and the atrocity it leads to is a code of public deadliness. No kidding," Keillor wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post Tuesday night.