Back atcha, pal. Brilliant reasoning and argumentation btw.
Same here.
So long as the possibility of on-going harm has been removed (or much reduced), Iām willing to wait for clarification, one way or another.
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My theory, for which I have no evidence, is that the widely-felt frustration with not being able to hold Trump to account is giving rise to an environment in which anyone who can be held to account will be, fairly or otherwise.
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Not a comment one way or the other on Keiller or Rodgers. Just a humorous pic to me since you brought up Rodgersā¦
Either MPR is lying or Keillor is lying.
Why would MPR lie? What do they gain? Nothing. They do, however, lose their goose that lays endless golden eggs. MPR lying would also require multiple MPR employees coordinating their lies together so that they stand up under the scrutiny of a court room. What do those employees have to gain risking criminal charges and ruining their reputations and ability to be employed in the future if such machinations ever came to light?
Keillor, on the other hand, has lots of incentive to lie. First, his reputation is being ruined so he has to derail this in any way possible. Thereās also his desire to continue making the large amount of money heās used to. A skeezy lawyer would know to muddy the waters and what better way to claim all that happened was that he touched a womanās bare back as he tried to console her and nothing else. MPR says thereās multiple incidents and this article mentions at least two people involved. Keillor says itās one person, one time. One of them lying.
If MPR is lying that will come out in court. If, however, this is an attempt to try and get more money out of an out of court settlement I imagine Keillor will come up with some reason as to why heās not suing MPR even though he said he was going to so he could clear his name.
Thereās no logical reason for MPR to lie about this. There are plenty of reasons for Keillor to lie if MPRās claims are accurate.
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I agree, but then an accuser ought to be clear about that instead of saying or implying that sexual harassment occurred.
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Pretty easy to interpret as a negative thing.
As weāve seen a lot recently with the topic of this article, people interpret things differently.
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Thatās what I was thinking. To be a devilās advocate against my own self, I do think we sometimes see an organization acting in haste and making a mistakeāMSNBCās firing Sam Seder comes to mind. But in the public radio world theyād think long and hard, I really do think that, before doing this. PHC was a flagship of the public radio world for an extremely long time, and made them a lot a lot a lot of money. It proves nothing but boy I think it militates against a hasty move on their part.
There is reason for MPR to lie if they acted hastily out of fear that they would be swept up in our current national debate. To be honest, when they said āmultiple accusersā my first thought was that like in so many cases there were scores of people waiting in the wings to say he had harassed or touched them and in my head he became a creepy old perv. He might be a creepy old perv, but now the story is ātwo people but with multiple accusationsā.
If one of those two people is complaining about being touched on the back then suddenly this case is looking very shaky. If the other accuser has credible accusations then the case seems much better,.
BUT we have no idea. So while yes there are reasons like you outline where Keillor is engaged in a smear campaign/coverup, there is also an easily imaginable situation where MPR overreacted, especially since white women are very important to their donor base.
I donāt know Keillor and honestly have no idea. My hunch is thereās something there in the complaints, but I donāt go around asking people to be fired on a hunch. Thatās why itās important to figure out some way to let things run their course before we just fire anyone whoās accused, as we would with most other employment issues.
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Also (got no opinion on facts of the case) public radio can be a place in which upper admin is very timid: audience share is so fragile, budgets are so vulnerable, that they always seek to avoid giving offense. And theyāve been cowed by authoritarianism in gov ever since Bush I.
That said, Iāve worked in public radio, and with the folks at MPR, and theyāre upstanding decent peopleāmuch different than current management at NPR in DC
Finally, Iāve interacted with Keillor. As I said, Iāve got no special facts on the case, but my sense of him, person-to-person, is that it is exceptionally possible that (a) his egoāwhich is very sizableāand (b) his apparent dissociation from othersā responsesāmight lead him to believe a very different version of events than othersā.
all I got.
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I agree itās difficult to think MPR hastily killed their goose that lays their golden eggs. Thereās massive incentives and pressure from fans, sponsors and the MPR board to keep him and none to get rid of him beyond doing the right thing.
This is why we have a justice system, as flawed as it is.
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Wasnāt Charlie Rose involved with PBS also.
Thatās more actual data than most of us have!
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Perhaps MPR was looking for an excuse to get rid of Keillor. If he thinks he was wrongfully terminated, he should file a civil lawsuit. Then, we can depose all the relevant parties and witnesses, and find out what happened.
Precisely.
Or is that just because its what you want to believe, and it fits your current world view on this subject?
You just got a Senator to resign, based purely on unsubstantiated accusations. Likewise, we just had the head of the Florida Democratic Party forced to resign for unsubstantiated accusations (which largely seem to beā¦he sometimes looked at women).
In this sort of environment, its entirely plausible that MPR would fire Keillor without fully investigating accusations. Right now, merely making the accusations puts a mark of guilt on the accused; the higher profile they are, the higher the assumption of guilt.
My own personal view is that he seems to be setting up either a lawsuit or a settlement. I doubt very seriously he hasnāt spoken to an attorney before making these remarks. But we shall see.
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Well, just to clarify, I already said they could have acted in haste; you quoted me saying it. Iāve also already said repeatedly I deeply admire the manās work and would prefer he not be in this kind of mess if just for that. My āworldviewā is that these are extremely serious charges and should never, ever be made without full justification. Iāve also said more than once that we want to make sexual harassment less ubiquitous but not get caught up in a career-destroying frenzy over trivial things. I do question and feel dismayed by a tendency Iāve seen here to behave congruently with Trump and Mooreās defenders in questioning the timing and so forth. And Iād really be profoundly dismayed if the Democrats lose ground among women because they equivocate on this. There are prominent voices outside our own little community here making that point pretty strongly, so I donāt think Iām a big outlier there.
Thatās my current world view on this subject, and Iāll be presumptuous enough to suggest that Iām kind of the ultimate expert on what I myself actually think about things.
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Off topic perhaps but is that a real pic?