No death watch for McVeigh.(television broadcasters have no plans to broadcast execution of Timothy J. McVeight)

TV news' march toward greater access balks at Last Mile

In 1928, New York Daily News photographer Tom Howard sneaked a camera strapped to his ankle into the witness area at New York's Ossining State Prison's death chamber to photograph convicted killer Ruth Snyder at the moment of her electrocution.

It was a startling front-page image, instantly the stuff of media legend.

But with the scheduled execution of Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh two months away (May 16), even McVeigh's own call last week for his death to be broadcast failed to tempt any TV network or station to try to do it.

None of the networks contacted late last week--ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News Channel, PBS, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC and Court TV--have plans to challenge the federal protocol that now prohibits live broadcast of executions. Nor do major journalism organizations: the Radio Television News Directors Association, Society of Professional Journalists and Reporters' Committee for …