Minnesota Public Radio Reporter Resigns, Calls Out Editors

TWIN CITIES, MN — A Minnesota Public Radio reporter publicly resigned Monday, saying her employer did not allow her to fully investigate the accusations of sexual misconduct against a DJ at 89.3 the Current. The Current is one of MPR's sister stations.

Marianne Combs said she spent two and a half months investigating the allegations, gathering testimony from eight different women. The women say the man "sexually manipulated and psychologically abused them," Combs wrote on Twitter.

Combs did not name the DJ accused.

"I also interviewed the directors of a summer church camp who told this DJ he was no longer welcome to volunteer there because of his inappropriate behavior with teenage girls," she continued.

"Despite this, my editors have failed to move forward on the story. They have countered that the DJ’s actions were, for the most part, legal, and therefore don’t rise to the level of warranting news coverage."

According to Combs, her editors acknowledge the DJ is "a real creep" but are concerned that running her story might lead to a lawsuit.

In a statement emailed to Patch, Duchesne Drew — the President of MPR — said he was "shocked" by Combs’ resignation, but that he fully supports the editors who reviewed her story.

"The MPR News editors decided that the story, which deals with complex and sensitive issues, is not ready to run because it does not meet our journalistic standards," Drew continued. "In fact, they were blindsided by Marianne’s resignation and expected that she was continuing to work on the story.

"The MPR News editors use discipline in applying our high standards for journalism. The MPR newsroom seeks independent legal counsel on First Amendment and other matters related to our reporting. Our editors, not attorneys, decide when a story is ready to run. Neither I nor any other members of senior leadership at Minnesota Public Radio or American Public Media Group were involved in shaping or reviewing the story. Doing so would have been inappropriate. In fact, there’s a firewall between the newsroom and senior leaders of the company."

Combs' resignation comes less than a week after American Public Media fired Garrett McQueen, the state's only Black classical music host.

According to Drew and APM President Dave Kansas, McQueen was fired because he repeatedly made unauthorized programming changes.

"Our decision was not sudden and came after several conversations with Garrett over the past year regarding programming changes," they said in a statement.