Whoops.

A journalists’ shield bill that would have granted reporters limited rights to protect confidential sources died Monday night in the Texas House, killed by a typo.

“It’s incredible. It’s a farce. In this case, there’s a comma instead of a semicolon,” said Jeremy Warren, the dismayed spokesman for the bill’s chief author, Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston.

Senate Bill 966, dubbed by authors as the “Free Flow of Information Act,” would have protected journalists from being compelled to testify about, disclose or produce confidential information in criminal cases, with certain exceptions.

I’ve got competing sympathies and would need to study the issue further before offering an “official” opinion on this measure.

None of which will stop me from twisting the knife with the observation that it looks like the Houston Chronicle’s lobbying team is as badly in need of a copy editor as the daily print operation.