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.