For those who have never heard of Garrison Keillor, he is a jack of many trades, but probably most well-known for his weekly radio program on NPR, Prairie Home Companion.  It's an old school radio show, the kinds with home-made sound effects, with live music acts, Guy Noir detective skits, and all kinds of silliness, and social and political satire.  He's also a columnist.  He also publishes anthologies of poetry.  He's a liberal Midwestern folk hero type.  I'm trying to think of anything comparable in another country.  I can't.  I can't even think of anyone in America to compare him to.  He's kinda Mark Twainish.  He's not a snooty intellectual, because there really isn't a large place for people like that in America.  Probably what he is doesn't make any sense to Europeans, because you are accustomed to thinking of Americans using certain categories.  Maybe there's no one like him.  He's folksy curmudgeonly lovable scathing unassuming and outspoken.  But it all makes sense in him.  

Anyway, I'm attributing Jerome's reaction to ignorance.  Because Keillor's fan base is that evil NPR-listening, PBS-watching over-educated liberal elite who eat organic arugula, travel the world, and can tell you who the current Poet Laureate of America is.  Characterizing him the way Jerome has is like characterizing Santa as anti-Christmas.  Truly bizarre.  Completely wrong.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.