PUBLIC RADIO SUED OVER DONOR LISTS
source: Yahoo News

The state's attorney general sued Minnesota Public Radio today for allegedly sharing its donor lists with the Democratic National Committee and others, saying MPR broke laws governing charities.
In the lawsuit filed in Ramsey County District Court, Attorney General Mike Hatch seeks civil penalties against the network. He alleges that MPR, which produces Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion,'' allowed 100 organizations to use its member information, sometimes even including member phone numbers.
"This translates into 3 million member names, addresses and phone numbers disclosed for fund-raising solicitations,'' according to Hatch's summary of the lawsuit.
The suit alleged that MPR members did not get enough information on how their names and addresses would be distributed to other groups, and that this lapse constituted fraud under state laws on charities.
Over the summer, it was revealed that at least two dozen public television stations had exchanged membership lists with political groups, causing problems in Washington for public broadcasting, which has nonprofit status.

(The MPR statement can be found here.)

posted on December 28, 1999 12:43 PM