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Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo, is proposing a bill to give the Utah Legislature oversight of KUED-Channel 7's budget.

Herrod said he's concerned the Legislature doesn't have all the information it needs, yet KUED management say they haven't received any calls from lawmakers asking about the station's budget or programming.

News of the bill came "out of the blue," said Michael Dunn, KUED's general manager, who pointed out KUED's annual budget is available on the station's website. "I'd love to sit down with Rep. Herrod. I'd love to know what his concern is."

The local University of Utah-based station is an affiliate of the national Public Broadcasting Service. The state's other PBS affiliate, KBYU, wouldn't be affected by the bill because it doesn't receive state funding.

Herrod believes KUED — along with KULC-Channel 9 and KUER-FM 90.1, which also receive state funding — "should be under the purview of the [legislative] fiscal analyst," he said. "That's my main concern."

His proposal would require oversight of KUED's entire budget — not just the $2 million the state sends KUED, but the $7 million-plus it receives annually from grants and donations. "Well, I asked the fiscal analysts for information and they didn't have it," he said. "And I thought they had requested information."

Asked about programming that prompted House Bill 307, Herrod didn't have a specific example but added: "Obviously, I have a conservative slant, and PBS is not traditionally conservative."

Dunn rejected the suggestion that KUED's coverage is slanted. "I look back over not just what we've done the last year or the last 10 years, but a half-century of critically acclaimed current-affairs programming."

Herrod said the Legislature needs to be more fully informed about where money is going because he anticipates that money from the federal government — half of the Utah station's annual budget — is going to be cut. He took aim at PBS' award-winning "NewsHour." "I have no problem subsidizing Big Bird or 'Sesame Street' or something like that, but should we be subsidizing a news source that somebody else is providing for free?" he said.

Herrod's proposal comes in the wake of a move by congressional Republicans to kill funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. PBS and NPR receive 15 percent of their budget — about $170 million — from the federal government.

If Utah lawmakers are concerned about PBS programming, Dunn wants them to consider a study by a nonpartisan research company, GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, that revealed PBS was America's most-trusted TV news outlet — for the seventh straight year.

"In fact, every year in those seven years, with the exception of one, [the public] viewed public broadcasting as the best use of tax dollars, second only to the national defense," PBS President Paula Kerger recently told TV critics. "And that one year we were actually viewed as important as the investment in national defense. So we know that the work that we're doing is important to people across the country."

Dunn said he's "gratified" about local reaction to the proposed bill after Herrod's proposal was floated earlier this week. "People are really sort of outraged about it, because I think they know that we don't have an editorial bent," he said.

Herrod rejects criticism that the bill is an attempt to control KUED's content. "I've heard people say 'censorship,' " he said. "For me, as soon as there are taxpayer dollars, we do have a responsibility to make sure it's used wisely. I don't consider that censorship."

spierce@sltrib.com KUED budget

To view KUED's approximately $10 million annual budget expenditures, visit http://www.kued.org/misc/pdfs/about/KUED_FinancialStatements-2010.pdf.