Minnesota Public Radio Reporter Marianne Combs Resigns, Accuses Editors Of Covering Up Sexual Misconduct Story

Combs (Photo: Twitter @MarianneSCombs)

MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO/MPR NEWS Arts Reporter MARIANNE COMBS has resigned, and COMBS is accusing MPR management of covering up the story of an unnamed air talent from sister Triple A KCMP (89.3 THE CURRENT)/MINNEAPOLIS who has been accused of sexual misconduct.

COMBS posted a thread on TWITTER saying that she had resigned after 23 years and explained, "I have spent the past two and a half months investigating allegations made about the conduct of a DJ at our sister station, @TheCurrent. In that time, I gathered testimony from eight women who say that he sexually manipulated and psychologically abused them. Their experiences span fifteen years and describe a man who preyed on younger, sexually inexperienced women. These women encountered him while he was working at other local radio stations; they are concerned that he is now using his status as a DJ at The Current to attract and further torment young women. 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. I found out that in June he was fired from another job where he worked with children; that organization is now conducting an investigation into his time there.

"I wrote a story draft and my editors presented it to our legal counsel for review. The lawyer judged the story to be compelling and well-sourced, with strong supporting documentation. She saw no legal threat to MPR News for airing the story. 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. They described him as 'a real creep,' but worried that airing a story about his behavior would invite a lawsuit. While the editors have not gone so far as to cancel the story, they have shown such a complete lack of leadership that I no longer have any confidence they will handle the story appropriately. It took two weeks to get them to even look at a second draft. All this while the DJ remains employed at The Current." She concluded that MPR's failure to approve the story sends the "implicit message that (the victims') cause is not an urgent one (and) we are as good as silencing them. I cannot accept this course of action."

MPR Pres. DUCHESNE DREW responded with a statement saying that the company was "shocked" by COMBS' resignation but that "I fully support the editors who reviewed her story" who decided that the story "is not ready to run because it does not meet our journalistic standards," adding that the editors "were blindsided" by COMBS' resignation. DREW added that the allegations do not claim assault or anything illegal and did not report the complaints to MPR's human resources department.

Late TUESDAY, MPR issued a statement naming the DJ and announcing that he had been fired. The statement read, "MPR has made the decision that the audience of THE CURRENT is best served by a programmatic change. As a result, ERIC MALMBERG will no longer be a DJ on THE CURRENT. Our hosts have to be able to attract an audience that wants to listen to them and trusts them and over the last 36 hours those conditions have changed for MALMBERG."

COMBS' resignation follows another controversy in which Classical host GARRETT MCQUEEN, the station's only Black Classical on-air host, was fired for departing from the station's playlist.

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