Politico reported Thursday afternoon that The Washington Post will no longer publish Garrison Keillor's columns following his firing from Minnesota Public Radio over workplace misconduct allegations.
Editorial page editor Fred Hiatt told Politico in a statement that Keillor violated the newspaper's transparency policies for opinion writers by defending Al Franken in this past Tuesday's column while knowing he was "under investigation for his workplace behavior." He "should not have written a column on that subject," Hiatt said.
It remains unclear whether Keillor will continue to work for the Washington Post News Service & Syndicate, which distributes columns to newspapers nationwide. On Wednesday, the organization said it was still gathering information about Keillor's situation.
Keillor is a big fan of the Post and told the Star Tribune last year that he thought the paper had surpassed the New York Times in national coverage. Keillor was also extremely popular in DC., selling out the area's Wolf Trap National Park venue on an annual basis.
Keillor was in the midst of a tour in the New York/Connecticut area when he was dropped by MPR. All three remaining live shows on the tour had been canceled by Thursday afternoon.
