In an outrageous breach of professional conduct, the Pittsburgh police PIO, apparently at the direction of the police chief, sent a detailed inquiry from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to about 200 reporters in a news release. Post-Gazette reporters Jonathan Silver and Liz Navratil, both Guild members, had emailed the chief's office with a long list of questions about a homicide/suicide and the police response. Rather than provide any answers, the PIO's office sent out an email saying the chief would have no comment on any media inquiries, then attached the full list of questions from Silver and Navratil. The paper's editor called it "a horrifying, disrespectful departure from every interchange I have had, or been witness to, with public-relations professionals in four decades in journalism.”

In an open letter, the parents of kidnapped journalist Austin Tice plead for his return. "Our family is longing for the safe return of our cherished son and beloved brother Austin, who was taken captive while working as a journalist in Syria. So many things have happened in the more than 18 weeks he has been missing. We missed him terribly at the family gathering for the feast of Thanksgiving. We are a close-knit family, sharing so many memories and traditions. Now, as we prepare for the joyful celebration of Christmas, we desperately want our family to be whole. Our hearts are heavy to think his chair may once again be empty at our family table; we dread missing his great storytelling and contagious laugh."

The Associated Press was scheduled to release its Top Stories of 2012 on Monday (the voting deadline was last Thursday), but the Sandy Hook School tragedy has forced another vote.

NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce reports that at least one of the people working with NBC News correspondent Richard Engel when they were captured last week is a NABET member -- John Kooistra of Local 11. The crew was freed Monday after five days of forced moves and death threats.