WLRN-FM is weighing a newsroom partnership with the Miami Herald, reports the Miami New Times.

The Houston Chronicle reports on a Texas appeals court hearing of the Frontline jury taping case.

Media reporter and critic Mark Jurkowitz slams public radio in today’s Boston Globe, accusing NPR President Kevin Klose and WBUR General Manager Jane Christo of dodging and patronizing supporters of Israel who say the network’s reporting is biased. [Earlier article from Current about WBUR and its pro-Israel critics.]

A new CPB-backed website for producers offers guidance on enhancing education in public TV programs. It includes case studies that assess educational outreach strategies for recent PBS series and specials.

Joanne Kaufman writes in The New York Times of her 11-year-old son’s love for radio, which includes public radio. Writes Kaufman, “If I were not afraid of going out on a limb, I would say that he likes Scott Simon almost as much as Scott Simon does.”

Documentary producer and director Jaime Kibben died Jan. 11 in a car accident in Tel Aviv. Kibben worked as a sound engineer for PBS’s NewsHour from 1990 to 1996.

NPR has renewed and expanded its contract with the Associated Press, reports Radio Ink.

When PBS took over the Television Critics Association press tour, the Toronto Globe and Mail‘s Andrew Ryan found the change startling: “Gone are the attractive, Starbucks-fuelled cable hacks; now we have dozens of timid PBS publicists in sensible National Public Radio fashions drinking tea at the back of the room.”

Hearing Voices has produced a new public radio special, “State of Union”, featuring contributions from Scott Carrier, Jay Allison and other producers.

“Talking to PBS suits about the skanky infomercials with which the public broadcasting network’s stations pollute the PBS brand during pledge drives is a lot like talking to parents of a crack-addicted teen,” writes Lisa de Moraes in the Washington Post. [Scroll down from top story in column.]

A line of furniture based on pieces seen on Antiques Road Show will be in retail stores this summer, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

The New York Times published two reviews of the PBS series Freedom: The Story of US. Alessandra Stanley described it as a “didactic, worthy and irritatingly timid” signal that “at long last the time has come to consider privatizing public television or turning it over to the state.” In the second review, published a day later, Ron Wertheimer praised it as a “courageous attempt” to encourage the reaffirmation that Americans need in these perilous times. These critics agreed that the series is overburdened with a parade of celebrities doing voice-overs. [Link to the pbs.org website.]

Peter Sellars’ production of The Children of Herakles, covered in today’s New York Times, features contributions from public radio’s Christopher Lydon. Lydon is working on a new eight-part interview series for Public Radio International titled The Whole Wide World.

Vin Scelsa, pioneer of freeform radio and a host on public station WFUV in New York, is taking his show’s stream and archives offline to protest federal rules governing streaming, reports the New York Daily News. There’s more information at the station’s website.

There are 31 women general managers in public television. When this was reported to a gathering of women at the 2002 PBS Annual Meeting, the room burst into applause. For good reason. These are 31 highly accomplished women who shoulder not only c.e.o. responsibilities at their stations but also, in many cases, heavy national workloads as well. Yes, we’ve come a long way since the days when there were only three or four women g.m.’s in the room at public TV conferences. When you look at it that way, the system has seen 700 percent growth in the number of female g.m.’s