Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch reached an agreement late last week that ends the state’s lawsuit over the radio station’s donor-list sharing practices. The agreement, in which MPR admitted no wrong doing, was signed last Friday.
While the agreement does not assess any penalties or costs against MPR, it requires the radio station to clarify its list-swapping practices for its members.
Specifically MPR must tell its donor-members about the type of information shared with third parties; how often it is provided, and how they can opt-out from having that information, generally limited to name and address, from being shared.
“MPR has always been committed to giving its donors the full range of information necessary to make informed decisions as well as protecting the privacy of our members,” Will Haddeland, senior vice president, public affairs, said in a statement which also criticized Hatch for bringing the suit in the first place.
Hatch, in a prepared statement, said the settlement “made sense in light of the comments made by MPR concerning the disclosure of its donor list-sharing practices.”
Last December Hatch’s office filed the suit alleging that since January 1, 1995, MPR shared its donor lists, which included telephone numbers, with more than 100 organizations, including the Democratic National Committee.
It also alleged that MPR failed to disclose both in its literature and Web site the volume or identities of the organizations it shared information with.
Reportedly nearly half of MPR’s 88,000 donor-members have opted out from having their information shared with third parties since the lawsuit was filed.
A little over a year ago the Corporation for Public Broadcasting imposed new mailing list guidelines on its members following the admission by WGBH, a Boston television station, that it improperly traded mailing list names with both the Democratic and Republican National Committees.
Public radio and television stations are now prohibited from selling, renting, leasing, loaning, trading, donating, or exchanging their membership or donor lists with “any candidate for public office, committees or organizations that solicit funds for use in political campaigns.”
They are also required to maintain active control over their membership and donor lists, including the sale and rental of those lists, and protecting the privacy of those who request it by offering an opt out provision. Failure to follow the rules could affect a public radio or television station’s funding, according to the CPB.
Reported to be the largest public radio station in the country, MPR is best know for Garrison Keilor’s program, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
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