RALEIGH, N.C. — The N.C. Senate’s budget proposal contains a provision that could move North Carolina’s public television network into the jurisdiction of the UNC School of the Arts.

The provision, which was inserted by Sen. Linda Garrou, D-Forsyth, has surprised people affiliated with both the TV network and the school.

Leaders at UNC-TV oppose the idea, calling it ill-conceived and unworkable. They say that the primary mission of the network is journalistic and educational, and that it would not fit under the School of the Arts, a small university focused on performance and entertainment.

“I hope this one dies a natural death,” said Betty McCain, the chairwoman of UNC-TV’s board of trustees.
The provision appears as a single paragraph in a 200-page budget document, which received its final approval yesterday in the Senate. The $20 billion budget plan for fiscal year 2009-10 now moves to the N.C. House, which is expected to make many changes.

The provision would direct the UNC board of governors to “study the feasibility” of transferring UNC-TV to the School of the Arts. It also would require the board of governors to “develop a plan to implement such a transfer.”

Currently, UNC-TV is not affiliated with any single university. It reports directly to the board of governors, which oversees the entire UNC system.

Garrou, the Senate’s chief budget writer, gave little indication yesterday of what the transfer would achieve or why she put it in the budget.

“The School of the Arts is such a wonderful treasure for the state. I look at public television and I see that also as a treasure,” she said.

And she said that the study would look at “enhancing the opportunities for both UNC-TV and the School of the Arts.”

Garrou, of Winston-Salem, has long been a strong advocate in the General Assembly for the School of the Arts, which is located in her legislative district.

A spokeswoman for the school said yesterday that the school did not request to take over UNC-TV, and that the school was not even aware of Garrou’s provision until after the Senate budget was publicly released this week. The school will not take a position on the proposed transfer of UNC-TV until a study is done, the spokeswoman said.

UNC-TV leaders struggled yesterday to understand why such a transfer would be desirable.

“I’m in that old school that says if it isn’t broken, then what are you trying to fix?” said Ashley Thrift, a lawyer in Winston-Salem who is on the UNC-TV board of trustees.

As a resident of Winston-Salem, Thrift said that he appreciates the School of the Arts and has nothing bad to say about it. But he believes the cultures of the two institutions are very different. UNC-TV’s mission of providing educational programming for children and informational public-affairs shows is very different from the mission of the School of the Arts, a small conservatory that educates students in film, design, drama and other arts.

“This just came out of left field,” Thrift said.

McCain said that Garrou did not consult with her about the proposal.

“Somebody has gotten to Linda and told her it was a wonderful idea, and I don’t know who that somebody was. But I can tell you it was not I,” McCain said.

McCain said that keeping UNC-TV as a separate entity would preserve its editorial integrity and independence. And she also said she is concerned about recent financial difficulties at the School of the Arts.

UNC-TV’s headquarters and studio are located in Research Triangle Park, about 90 miles away from the School of the Arts campus.

Garrou’s provision was not publicly debated this week as the Senate budget moved through committees and was passed on the Senate floor. Democrats supported the budget, while most Republicans opposed it.
Advocates for open government have criticized the legislature’s use of so-called “special provisions” – items that are inserted into the budget but that apparently have nothing to do with raising or spending money. Such items often make policy changes without getting a full public hearing.

UNC-TV first went on the air in 1955 and has operated as North Carolina’s public television station ever since. Its annual budget is about $28 million, and it receives both state and federal money.

NEW YORK – North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area had the largest TV audience during inauguration coverage of President Barack Obama.

Nielsen Media Research says the Raleigh-Durham market had more than 51 percent of households tuned to Tuesday’s events.

Nationally, about 30 percent of TV homes were tuned to the inauguration coverage in the 56 local television markets measured by Nielsen Media Research. Seattle-Tacoma had the lowest viewership, with just 18.8 percent.

The audience estimate reflects live coverage on 14 broadcast and cable networks from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST, as well as CNBC and ESPN that aired the inauguration from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.

This preliminary count represents about 70 percent of the nation’s total TV households.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical reporter, is the leading contender to become the next surgeon general, a pick that will give the moribund office a higher profile but one that has received a mixed reaction among public health advocates.

WASHINGTON, N.C. – A former state legislator, Cabinet secretary and founder of WITN television in eastern North Carolina has died at the age of 90.

Bill Roberson Jr.’s funeral was slated for Monday afternoon at First Presbyterian Church in Washington, N.C. Paul Funeral Home said Roberson died Saturday at his home. A funeral home spokesman had no information on the cause of death.

Roberson helped put WITN on the air in 1955. He was the station’s chairman and chief executive for 30 years.

Roberson also served in the Legislature for eight years. Then-Gov. Jim Hunt appointed him as state transportation secretary in 1981. He served until 1985.

Survivors include his son, daughter, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

NEW YORK – It proved to be more than a joke when David Letterman said in late September that “the road to the White House runs through me.”

Presidential candidates found late-night comedy shows a particularly valuable asset during the 2008 campaign, making more than four times the number of on-set appearances with Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and the crowd than the 2004 contenders did, some new research has found.

“Candidates have figured out that you can reach voters through entertainment venues even better than news,” said Robert Lichter, a George Mason University professor and head of the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

Candidates made 110 appearances on the late-night shows, up from 25 in 2004, the center said. Fifty this time came before a primary vote was even cast, as a full complement of candidates in both parties looked for ways to get their faces in front of cameras – something President Bush didn’t have to worry about four years ago.

There’s a rich history of candidates using entertainment venues to show voters they can laugh at themselves: Richard Nixon went on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in” in 1968, and Bill Clinton played the sax on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992. Yet it wasn’t until 2008 that the appearances began to seem routine.

Republican John McCain made 17 such guest shots on venues that relentlessly made him the butt of jokes, although one appearance he canceled – with Letterman – may be remembered longer than any of them. President-elect Barack Obama had 15 appearances, third behind Republican Mike Huckabee, who now has a talk show of his own on Fox News Channel.

For the shows, it was a way to tap into a campaign that was a television hit from start to finish. Leno had 22 candidate appearances, while Stewart had 21, Letterman had 19 and Stephen Colbert had 15.

Not only does a candidate have the chance to display a sense of humor to the late-night crowd, a good exchange could be magnified with endless repeats on YouTube or cable news networks the next day.

The shows also give the candidates a venue to talk directly to voters than they might otherwise get. In 2000, candidate George Bush had more time to talk in one appearance with Letterman than he had during a full month on the “CBS Evening News,” Lichter said.

And who wants to deal with pesky journalists, who always want to knock you off message?

“It’s a lot more risky, as Sarah Palin will attest, to do an interview with Katie Couric than it is with Jay Leno,” said Howard Wolfson, a veteran campaign strategist and former Hillary Clinton adviser.

They aren’t always puffball appearances, though. Letterman, in particular, has become a particularly sharp interviewer. When McCain backed off an appearance citing the economic crisis – then did an interview with Couric later that day – Letterman wouldn’t let him forget it until McCain came back and pleaded for forgiveness. At a crucial time, Letterman was repeatedly reminding viewers of McCain’s brief campaign suspension, a period the candidate would rather voters have forgotten, Lichter said.

His running mate stayed away from the talk shows but made one memorable appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” getting in on some jokes about her.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin is juggling offers to write books, appear in films and sit on dozens of interview couches at a rate astonishing for most Hollywood stars, let alone a first-term governor.

Oprah wants her. So do Letterman and Leno.

The failed Republican vice presidential candidate crunched state budget numbers this past week in her 17th-floor office as tumbling oil prices hit Alaska’s revenues. Her staff, meanwhile, fielded television requests seeking the 44-year-old Palin for late-night banter and Sunday morning Washington policy.

Agents from the William Morris Agency and elsewhere, have come knocking. There even has been an offer to host a TV show.

“Tomorrow, Governor Palin could do an interview with any news media on the planet,” said her spokesman, Bill McAllister.

“Tomorrow, she could probably sign any one of a dozen book deals.

She could start talking to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That’s the level we are at here.”

“Barbara Walters called me. George Stephanopoulos called me,” McAllister said. “I’ve had multiple conversations with producers for Oprah, Letterman, Leno and ‘The Daily Show.”‘

Asked whether Winfrey was pursuing Palin for a sit-down, Michelle McIntyre, a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc., said she was “unable to confirm any future plans” for the show.

Palin may have emerged from the campaign politically wounded, with questions about her preparedness for higher office and reports of an expensive wardrobe. But she has returned to Alaska with an expanded, if unofficial, title – international celebrity.

John McCain plucked Palin out of relative obscurity in late August and put her on the national GOP ticket. Now, she has to decide how and where to spend her time, which could have implications for her political future and her bank account, with possible land mines of legal and ethical rules.

Palin is considering about 800 requests for appearances from December through 2009, with 75 percent coming from out of state. A year ago, just a sprinkle of requests came from beyond Alaska’s borders. They range from invitations to speak at The Chief Executives’ Club of Boston to attend a 5-year-old’s birthday party, from a prayer breakfast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to a business conference in Britain.

Michael Steele, the former Maryland lieutenant governor who wants to be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, is seeking face time.

She has invitations to make appearances in 20 foreign countries, typically with all expenses paid, McAllister said. She has more than 200 requests for media interviews, again from around the globe.

“She has to pace herself,” suggested veteran Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman. “She wants a career made in a Crock-Pot, not a microwave.”

In her two months on the national stage, Palin energized the Republican base but turned off moderates and independents, according to some surveys. Flubbed answers in national television interviews raised questions about her competence. She was embarrassed by the disclosure the RNC spent at least $150,000 for designer clothing, accessories and beauty services for her and her family.

The right book or movie deal could help Palin reintroduce herself to the nation, on terms she could dictate.

While books and movie deals could be worth millions of dollars, it’s not clear if Palin would be able to legally earn it. State rules say she cannot accept outside employment for compensation.

But there appears to be little in the way of precedent left by former governors to judge if book deals or lucrative speaking appearances amount to “employment.”

Palin has sent unmistakable signals she is open to running for president in 2012, but to advance her political ambitions she must stay in the public eye in the lower 48 states. As with any celebrity, there is the risk of overexposure. At the same time, she’ll be under pressure to attend to governing her home state, which is thousands of miles from the rest of the nation.

“She has to deal with the perception that she bobbled her debut,” said Claremont McKenna College political scientist John Pitney. “She needs to stay home for a while. If she wants a future in national politics, her No. 1 job is doing a good job as governor.”

Just this past week, shortly after conducting a string of national TV interviews and skipping a state education conference, she was scolded by the Anchorage Daily News. “There are … low graduation rates, plummeting North Slope oil prices, proposals to build alternative energy projects, the gas pipeline,” the paper said in an editorial. “It’s time for the governor to refocus on Alaska’s needs.”

RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina House may broadcast its sessions on the Internet before going on regular TV.

Members of a House committee examining the feasibility of televising floor sessions and committees said Wednesday airing sessions on the Web would be a good first step.

House Speaker Joe Hackney formed the panel. He’s said airing floor debate would open the legislative process and give people better knowledge about the Legislature.

The Senate and House already provide audio feeds of floor sessions and some committee meetings.

One plan floated in the committee would cost $1.3 million. The House daily floor session would be streamed live on the Internet. High-end cameras would be purchased so that the footage could one day run on cable television.

NEW YORK – After successive harrowing Election Nights in 2000 and 2004, there were no muffed calls by TV networks, no screwy exit polls, no real twists and turns – only the sense of history as

Barack Obama became the first black man elected president. The march of results coming in Tuesday night matched the growing size of crowds gathering in Chicago’s Grant Park and elsewhere to celebrate the victory.

“It’s the end of apathy,” said NBC’s Tom Brokaw. “People want to get involved in their political system.”

When the polls closed in the West at 11 p.m. EST, The Associated Press sent a FLASH – “Obama wins presidency” – and the networks called the election, too, as their cameras panned cheering crowds, much like those at a World Series victory.

It was a party atmosphere in New York’s Times Square and Rockefeller Center, where ABC and NBC set up giant outdoor screens at the sites of their studios. Throughout the evening, people gathered to watch results.

“I have never seen anything like this,” NBC’s Norah O’Donnell said while walking through the crowd.

People posted videos of their votes online, while the leading news site Yahoo! News had to add servers after the site suffered slowdowns because of the volume of users.

Ominous signs for Republican John McCain appeared moments after 5 p.m. EST when exit poll information was broadcast.

Network news presidents were hauled before Congress eight years ago for their wrong Election Night calls. They were also burned severely in 2004 when the first wave of exit poll data pointed toward a John Kerry victory over President Bush. Going through exit poll data Tuesday, they shied away from horse-race figures in favor of issues. By a huge margin, voters said the struggling economy was the top issue.

“I’ve never seen an issue so predominant in this way,” said ABC anchor Charles Gibson.

Another early finding: a majority of voters believed GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin wasn’t qualified to be president.

Before 7 p.m., CNN’s panel of experts was heaping praise on Democrat Obama. “This is a really good candidate, a natural as wesay in sports,” said Republican analyst Bill Bennett.

A key moment was the declaration that Obama had won Pennsylvania.

“I have to say right now that the McCain campaign strategy for victory has crashed,” MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said at 8:02 p.m. ABC and NBC were the quickest to call Pennsylvania.

Brit Hume was discussing the electoral map with analyst Karl Rove when Hume was given word that Fox News Channel was calling the key battleground of Ohio for Obama. “McCain’s situation right now is looking pretty dire,” Hume said at 9:17 p.m., an assessment other networks followed when they made their own calls for Ohio.

Without winning Ohio, CBS News’ Bob Schieffer said he couldn’t see McCain winning.

“The cake is baked, in your view?” anchor Katie Couric asked him.

“Yes,” Schieffer replied.

On NBC, Brokaw and Andrea Mitchell tried to fill a void left by the late Tim Russert. Chuck Todd paid tribute with an electronic version of Russert’s famous white board, inscribing “Bush, Bush, Bush” as the reason for McCain’s defeat. Russert’s son, Luke, was stationed in Indiana reporting on Obama’s ground campaign.

Fox’s Hume, who’s stepping back as a daily news anchor after Election Night, was a loose and occasionally goofy presence, at one point wheeling his chair across the studio. “This is so cool,” he said as Bill Hemmer used an interactive wall. “If I did that, I would set that thing on fire.”

CNN had the most talked-about visual effect of the night, a hologram that made correspondent Jessica Yellin appear in the New York studio when she was in Chicago.

It also had the day’s most embarrassing interview: killing time in the morning, CNN sent Richard Roth into Times Square to interview “The Naked Cowboy” on his political preference.

The underwear-clad character was a McCain man.

WASHINGTON – Election watchers won’t have to wait for polls to close in the West to know how things are going. The first clues will come early, when voting ends in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia.

If Democrat Barack Obama wins any of the three, he could be on his way to a big victory, maybe even a landslide. If Republican John McCain sweeps them, he could be headed for a comeback. And if any of these three are too close to call quickly, that could indicate a long night ahead – and, perhaps, a squeaker of a result.

President Bush comfortably won the trio four years ago. But Obama has used his financial muscle and his draw as the youthful first black Democratic nominee to put them, and other historically reliable Republican states, into play.

Thus, the Democrat has several routes he can take to reach the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory. McCain’s strategy has no room for error; he must win nearly all the states that went to Bush in 2004, and possibly even one or two that voted for Democrat John Kerry that year.

Here’s a timetable for armchair election watchers, all given in Eastern Standard Time:
 
-7 p.m.: The last polls close in Georgia, Indiana and Virginia, new battlegrounds this year offering a combined 39 votes, as well as in Kentucky and South Carolina, GOP country and 16 votes McCain should easily win, and Vermont, three, a sure thing for Obama.

 -7:30 p.m.: Ohio and North Carolina, both are critical for McCain.

Ohio is a perennial swing state that no Republican has ever lost on his way to the presidency. Bush captured the state twice, and a loss would be difficult, if not impossible, for McCain to weather. He has few options to make up the 20 electoral votes elsewhere, while Obama probably could sustain a defeat here and look for wins in other GOP states where polls show him running stronger.
  
North Carolina, with 15 votes, is another GOP state that Obama targeted for a pickup from the start of the general election and one where he is working to get blacks and young adults to turn out for him in droves. He also made a late play for West Virginia’s five votes. Both are less likely than others to flip; McCain losing either would be disastrous.

 -8 p.m.: Final voting ends in some 15 states and Washington, D.C.

For Obama, the biggest prizes among them are Florida and its 27 votes and 11-vote Missouri, a bellwether for decades. Both went for Bush, and while Obama can afford to lose both, McCain can’t.

Should the Republican stumble in those states or others, he hopes to make up any deficit in Pennsylvania, which offers 21 votes and hasn’t voted for a Republican since 1988. A loss here could be the death knell for McCain’s chances; it’s the only Kerry-won state where he and the Republican National Committee are fiercely competing.
 
Among other Kerry states, McCain hopes New Hampshire and its independent streak will come through for him again; the state, which has four electoral votes, made him in his 2000 presidential primary and saved him eight years later, setting him on course to win the GOP nomination. McCain also has been gunning for a single electoral vote in Maine, one of two states that award them by congressional districts.

In this election-night hour, the Republican will almost certainly rack up 33 quick votes with wins in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee, while Obama banks 47 from Connecticut,
Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and the nation’s capital and 24 more from his home state of Illinois and that of running mate Joe Biden, Delaware.

- 8:30 p.m.: Arkansas should be called for McCain shortly after its polls close. It has six votes.

- 9 p.m.: Another big wave of states closing. The ones to watch are hotly contested Bush states Colorado and New Mexico, where Obama hopes Democratic-leaning Hispanics will lift him to victory. McCain could withstand losing the 14 votes these two offer – as long as he wins just about everywhere else he’s competing.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on the typically reliable Republican territory of North Dakota and South Dakota. Obama has competed in the former, and there may be overlap effect in the latter. They each offer there votes. Obama is also pushing for one vote in a Nebraska congressional district.

Arizona, McCain’s home state, may be another key indicator of which way the election will play out. If McCain loses that state, it’s all but certain his presidential dreams are over. Some surveys show the race there having tightened.

The Republican can essentially guarantee victories worth 52 votes in Kansas, Louisiana, Texas and Wyoming, while Obama is virtually certain to collect 72 votes from Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
 
- 10 p.m.: Voting ends in GOP-held, Iowa, Montana and Nevada, a combined 15 votes. Losing these would be a setback for McCain, while winning them would be a boon for Obama. Utah’s five votes are a certainty for McCain.

- 11 p.m.: Four states – mega-prize California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington – are expected to quickly give Obama a combined 77 votes, while Idaho is expected to award its four votes to McCain.

- 1 a.m.: Capping off the night is Alaska, where GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is governor. The Republican ticket is a shoo-in for those three votes.

And then it’s over. Or not.

As the past two elections showed, there’s no certainty. If it’s a contest at all, the victor may not be declared until Wednesday’s wee hours. Or later.