New York — Katie Couric and her former morning television partner, Bryant Gumbel, will both be on location next week covering the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
But they have no chance of running into each other.
Couric, the "Today" show host, will be stationed in Oklahoma City, where McVeigh's bomb killed 168 people six years ago. CBS "Early Show" host Gumbel will be in Terre Haute, Ind., where McVeigh is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection.
The biggest question for TV networks planning their McVeigh coverage has simply been where to deploy most of their resources in the city where his victims lived or the city where he draws his last breath.
Potentially stickier issues were taken out of their hands.
Networks won't be able to show the execution, al-though 300 victims and relatives will watch closed circuit television under extremely tight security.
Restrictions on access to McVeigh in the weeks before his death mean networks likely won't face attacks for giving too much weight to his words.
McVeigh's May 16 execution is scheduled for 7 a.m. CDT in the midst of network morning news programs for most of the nation.
ABC, in deciding to send "Good Morning America" anchor Charles Gibson to Oklahoma City, said it wanted to send a message by spending more time with the "heroes" of the story the victims than with the villain.
"To put the anchor in another city than where the event is seems a bit out of whack," said Marcy McGinnis, vice president of news coverage for CBS.
Some critics have suggested ABC should be worried about covering the news rather than sending a message. CBS believes the story is in Terre Haute, McGinnis said.
All networks will station personnel in each city.
"I guess people are certainly entitled to their cynicism," said ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
"This decision was not made with any cynicism at all. It was based on how we wanted to cover the story," he said.
NBC's decision to deploy Couric in Oklahoma is not being done to make a political point, but because there is more material there, said Bill Wheatley, vice president of NBC News.
"That's where the bombing happened," he said. "That's where the families will be. There will be an opportunity to talk to a lot of people there. The coverage in Terre Haute will be quite restricted in terms of where we will be permitted to broadcast."
Only two spaces to witness the execution have been allotted to reporters from the six national networks covering the event. The networks will likely draw lots or flip coins to see who gets in.
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