I’d venture a bet that no American hates “Prairie Home Companion” more than I do.

Having loved people who have loved the show, I have tried desperately to understand its appeal. I have failed. Those relationships, perhaps not coincidentally, have failed, too.

So when I say it’s dead wrong that Minnesota Public Radio is going to stop rebroadcasting past episodes of the radio program, I don’t make the argument out of any devotion to it or Garrison Keillor.

It’s also not because the allegation that got Mr. Keillor fired yesterday after more than 40 years of running the show he founded seems minor according to the very limited information we have so far. MPR said Mr. Keillor was ousted over “inappropriate behavior.” The radio host wrote a baffling statement to The Star Tribune saying that the behavior amounted to one instance in which he put his hand on a woman’s bare back. Let’s wait to see if more troubling details come to light.

It’s because scrubbing the culture of work produced by the complicated or compromised or conniving or criminal or contemptible is a practice with a chilling legacy. It is a policy that is typically carried out by those who lack all faith in people to make up their own minds. One of the great many things the past two months has proved is that Americans, especially American women, are more than capable of rendering their own judgments.