The networks reserve the right to change their minds as events warrant. Someday, a prison will let the cameras in. For now, McVeigh won't get to star in his own TV-enhanced version of what amounts to assisted suicide. He called off the appeals process, instructed his attorneys he's ready to die and made a media-savvy play for the record books as he goes. State-sanctioned assisted suicide is next.
Some journalists feel TV has a responsibility to cover a lethal injection.
They say it's a legitimate news story, citing the public's right to know. Trade magazines are urging broadcast journalists to push for the story. Death penalty opponents say it would do the public good to see what this federally mandated power is all about. Just as publicity and pictures from an electric chair death led to the abolition of the electric chair in some states, the outcry might go a long way toward getting rid of the death penalty altogether. So far, only a few creepy Internet sites have been fighting for access.