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A reader passed this on to me a few days ago.

It looks like Karen Himle, the woman at the center of last fall's uproar over the 

"Troubled Waters" environmental-agricultural documentary

, has talked about her experience at that time 

You may remember that Himle, who was Vice President for University Relations at the time, made the phone call that cancelled the documentary's premier, and was one of the film's most outspoken 

 That drew howls of outrage from sections of the university community, which considered it a threat to academic freedom, and which saw her connections to agriculture as a serious conflict of interest. During the uproar, the university relations chief was often inaccessible, and the U made a public relations hash of the affair by both avoiding a number of key questions and putting out conflicting answers to others.

 speech hosted by Clover Consulting as part of its "Women, Wisdom & Wine" discussion series, Himle makes it sound as if she had been persecuted:

She says that the news outlets put out the wrong information, apparently without regard for the truth:

As a reporter who covered the story, I'll just say this in response:

If you think the facts aren't coming out, then you need to get involved, state those facts and answer fully all questions that follow -- especially if your job title includes the words "university relations." (Making sure the various accounts agree with each other also helps.)

(Note: This is a shortened version of the piece published earlier today.)

Education News

On Campus Blog

Alex Friedrich

Author

A reader passed this on to me a few days ago. It looks like Karen Himle, the woman at the center of last fall’s uproar over the “Troubled Waters” environmental-agricultural documentary at the University of Minnesota, has talked about her experience at that time in a speech in Minnetonka. You may remember that Himle, who…

What the U's central figure in Troubled Waters has to say about it

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