An end-of-session showdown between UNC-TV and state Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, R-Cabarrus, over unaired news footage has left the state’s major public television network looking less like a journalistic enterprise and more like an multimillion-dollar extension of the General Assembly’s P.R. shop.

After caving to a subpoena from the Senate Judiciary II Committee (which Hartsell chairs), and surrendering 13 DVDs of material to the legislature with barely a whimper, UNC-TV — an agency of the state’s executive branch — has abandoned any pretense of being an independent information-gathering outlet.

The only way for the station’s news operation to justify its continued existence is to separate entirely from state government. UNC-TV must become an independent, nonprofit organization not beholden to the whims of politicians.

Hartsell has worked for more than a year to help orchestrate a state takeover of four hydroelectric dams near Albemarle that Alcoa has owned and operated for nearly a century. Hartsell knew that UNC-TV had done some reporting on the controversy because he had been interviewed by the station.

But since the stories had not run on the program “North Carolina Now” and the short session was about to come to an end, Hartsell issued a subpoena for the unaired stories and supporting materials, intending to show them to his colleagues and the public at a committee hearing.

Had the General Assembly subpoenaed a private broadcaster (or newspaper) to hand over unpublished notes or video, that media outlet would tell the legislature to take a long walk on a short pier. North Carolina’s press shield law offers “a qualified privilege against disclosure in any legal proceeding of any confidential or nonconfidential information, document, or item obtained or prepared while acting as a journalist.”

But UNC-TV is not your typical journalism outfit. It’s part of state government, and since its employees are on the public payroll, UNC-TV staffers are required to comply with requests for information from lawmakers.

For its part, the Perdue administration, saying the guiding principle should be government transparency, encouraged UNC-TV to cooperate, saying the materials should be considered public records. The governor encouraged UNC-TV to cooperate.

Which legislative reporter Eszter Vajda did. She not only provided the unedited footage to Hartsell’s committee, she also produced a one-hour “documentary” — without the approval of her supervisors — for the hearing.

So much for watchdog journalism.

UNC-TV has made itself, and North Carolina Public Radio, open to future document raids by the legislature. In many other states, including neighboring Georgia, public broadcasting is run by independent nonprofits. Georgia Public Broadcasting receives a combination of membership support, corporate and foundation grants, and direct subsidies from taxpayers. Just like UNC-TV. But without the legislative snooping.

North Carolina could adopt that model.