Keillor takes heat for columns attacking Coleman

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Keillor takes heat for columns attacking Coleman Bob von Sternberg Star Tribune Published Nov. 21, 2002 KEIL21

Ever since radio humorist Garrison Keillor published a blistering online column Nov. 7 that attacked Sen.-elect Norm Coleman, controversy about it has bubbled up from coast to coast in the ether of e-mail and talk radio.

Most of the local players -- Keillor, Coleman, executives of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Twin Cities journalists -- have found themselves in an awkward spot, uncertain how to respond and how much of the controversy to report.

And the controversy got a new jolt Wednesday when the St. Paul Pioneer Press published excerpts of the original column and a follow-up column on its opinion page. Those excerpts included unsubstantiated swipes and thinly veiled innuendoes about Coleman's personal life.

While the newly elected senator and the homegrown radio icon remained mum Wednesday, MPR has scrambled from the start to distance itself from its longtime "Prairie Home Companion" host. Keillor took swipes at Coleman's politics and his personal life. Stormi Greener Star Tribune

In a statement prepared after his first column was posted on the online magazine salon.com, MPR called Keillor "an independent author and artist." "Although Mr. Keillor produces and hosts a radio show for Minnesota Public Radio," the statement said, "his political opinions are his own."

His writings "are totally unrelated to his relationship" with MPR, the statement said. "Mr. Keillor's opinions on political issues do not represent those of Minnesota Public Radio."

Bill Kling, president of the 31-station radio network based in St. Paul, personally conveyed that message to Coleman, said Marcia Appel, MPR's vice president of marketing. She stopped short of characterizing the conversation as an apology.

"Bill explained to a lot of people, including Norm Coleman, the relationship of Garrison Keillor and MPR," she said.

Coleman will continue to say nothing about the columns, said his spokeswoman, Leslie Kupchella.

Keillor was busy Wednesday, working on the script of Saturday's broadcast at the St. Paul offices of Prairie Home Productions, said spokesman Alan Frechtman. "He said all he has to say in the articles, and there's nothing more to add," Frechtman said.

Among other things, Keillor's self-described "screed" called Coleman "a hollow man" and "an empty suit" "who's sold his soul." Keillor also wrote: "I'm ashamed of Minnesota for electing this cheap fraud."

He accused Coleman of cynically using the Sept. 11 attacks as a campaign tactic.

"For a cynic like Norman Coleman to hitch his trailer to that tragedy is evil -- call it by the right name," Keillor wrote. "To exploit 9/11 and the deaths of those innocent people on that beautiful day in Manhattan -- to appropriate that day and infer so clearly that there is a Republican and a Democratic side to it is offensive to our national memory and obscenely evil."

Keillor wrote that Coleman's public mourning of the death of Sen. Paul Wellstone was feigned: "Norm finessed Wellstone's death beautifully. . . . Norm played his violin. He sorrowed well in public, he was expertly nuanced."

Keillor concluded that "to choose Coleman over Walter Mondale is one of those dumb low-rent mistakes, like going to a great steakhouse and ordering the tuna sandwich."

The original column and its unapologetic follow-up quickly made their way across the country via a daisy chain of e-mail messages; they were mentioned in such publications as the Washington Post and the New York Post. Talk radio hosts pounced, calling on listeners to boycott MPR's fall pledge drive.

That had no effect, Appel said, noting that MPR raised a record $1.7 million during the drive. And the network has not been inundated with calls, having gotten fewer than 100 on the issue, split down the middle. The story has been the same at Keillor's production company, "breaking 50-50 -- kind of like the election," Frechtman said.

Appel dismissed the radio outcry. "This plays to talk radio. It gives them stuff to talk about -- what would they do without issues like this?"

As the Pioneer Press' publication of the excerpts spiked talk radio's frenzy, Ron Rosenbaum, morning host on KSTP Radio (1500 AM), jumped into the fray Wednesday, denouncing what he called Keillor's "really scurrilous gossip."

He criticized the Pioneer Press for publishing unsubstantiated portions of the columns. "Garrison Keillor, whether you like it or not, is news, but it should have been treated as a news story," Rosenbaum said. "I just don't think some of that should have been published unedited."

Steven Dornfeld, the newspaper's editorial page associate editor, initially decided not to reprint either column, "because I didn't think they met our standards."

He changed course "when the debate started unfolding and a lot of readers didn't know what the story was about. They deserved to see what was being debated so they could draw their own conclusions."

Because the story was in play in so many other forums, "the genie was out of the bottle," Dornfeld said. "At a certain point, it's hard to ignore a story that's right in front of you."

Eric Ringham, who edits the Star Tribune's op-ed page, decided against reprinting the first column because of Keillor's unsubstantiated innuendoes. He ran only a short excerpt in which Keillor favorably compared Gov. Jesse Ventura to Coleman.

"I thought the personal stuff put the rest of the piece out of bounds," Ringham said. When he asked Keillor's agents about acquiring reprint rights for the follow-up column, the request was turned down. The agent quoted Keillor as saying that "he'd stirred things up enough and now wanted to just leave it where it was," Ringham said.

Except for two brief excerpts on the op-ed page and a brief mention in C.J.'s gossip column, the Star Tribune hasn't previously reported on the dust-up.

Managing Editor Scott Gillespie said editors have "used our news judgment in determining the amount of coverage we've done thus far. Obviously the story has gained momentum in recent days as the media attention has increased. We'll continue to monitor the impact of the flap on the key characters and on MPR, and we'll report what we think is newsworthy."

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2002


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