PRSA local update: PRSA is expanding its online library with recent teleseminar content adapted to synchronized audio/PowerPoint programs and downloadable mp3 files, and upcoming seminars will add to the list. More here.
PRSA local update II: This year's ethics program will be Wednesday, Sept. 12. Details to come.
PRSA local update III: Join PRSA this month at the full member rate of $290 ($225 national dues plus $65 initiation fee) and get a year's free membership in the chapter, Greater Fort Worth PRSA. More at prsa.org/membership/May-JunePromotion.html.
PRSA local update IV: Podcasting powerhouses Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, hosts of the podcast "For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report" and authors of the 450-page "How To Do Everything With Podcasting" being published this year by McGraw-Hill, will talk about what they do and how they do it at the Dallas PRSA joint communicators luncheon Thursday, June 28, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Midway Road at LBJ. More here.
SPJ national update: Prosecutors scuttle reporter shield law; and you're either on the plane or you're off the plane (McClatchy's off). A proposal to shield journalists from revealing their confidential sources in court was shot down in the Texas House on a technical point. Under existing law, a journalist who promises confidentiality to a source and then refuses a judicial order to identify the person can be jailed for contempt of court. The Texas Daily Newspaper Association and Texas Press Association blamed prosecutors for the bill's death. Fred Hartman, legislative chairman for the newspaper associations, said it's "extremely disappointing" that district attorneys resorted to using a technicality after their arguments against the bill failed. Added Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a leading sponsor of the bill: "To fight for so long and to move this bill so far and have it snatched away on something that is completely non-substantive is neither good government nor good for the people of Texas." More here. And for dessert, a little secrecy for you. ... Staffers at McClatchy's Washington, D.C., bureau -- one of the few major news outlets skeptical of intelligence reports during the run-up to the Iraq war -- say they are now being punished for that coverage. Bureau chief John Walcott and current and former McClatchy Pentagon correspondents say they have not been allowed on the defense secretary's plane for at least three years. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said requests for seats always exceed supply. More here.
