Media gets taste of what to expect at prison
Only 165 reporters attend meeting - a tenth of number expected during execution week
By Karin Grunden
Tribune-Star
Terre Haute got a hint of what is to come as television, newspaper and radio journalists packed a conference room at the Holiday Inn on Thursday for a briefing on details about the first federal execution in 38 years.
The media orientation drew 165 reporters from throughout the country, only about a tenth the number expected to be in Terre Haute for the May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh at the federal prison.
Fielding questions on everything from McVeigh's last meal -- which has yet to be determined -- to who will witness the execution, Bureau of Prisons officials also touched on some of the less-talked-about amenities for the approximately 1,300 media expected in mid-May.
"There will be ample portable toilets for you," Bureau of Prisons chief spokeswoman Linda Wines Smith said.
The media army is expected to start arriving in force in Terre Haute the week before the execution to set up their cameras and microphones and satellites and other equipment.
Live broadcasts from the prison grounds can start as early as May 13, the Sunday before McVeigh's planned Wednesday execution.
The media swarm is expected to turn the grounds outside the prison into a virtual city. All the major networks and newspapers, along with scores of smaller ones, will be on hand.
Tents, complete with electricity and phone lines, will be erected for journalists to work in, and caterers will be serving meals on prison grounds. The phone company is even building a cell tower at the penitentiary to handle the overload of portable phones that will be in use.
"It's purely a temporary site," said Jane Howard, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless.
Every detail for the execution is being carefully choreographed. Strict procedures for checking in, entering and leaving the prison grounds have been established; the major networks already have been assigned coveted patches of turf to set up their trucks.
The prison is even creating its own mini-highway system, allowing the media to use golf carts -- Warden Harley Lappin prefers to call them utility vehicles -- to navigate between the front lawn of the prison, where the media city will be located, and pre-designated protest areas.
"This is quite common for a means of getting around," Smith assured those in attendance.
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