I'm used to Marc Patrone - the mid-morning host on Sauga 960 - spouting some pretty unusual theories (he still believes the last U.S. election was rigged and that there's a conspiracy of several kinds around COVID-19.) But while monitoring a bit of his show on Monday, I did a double take. 

Around 9:20 AM, he played a good minute-long bit of an interview with a doctor who believes the public isn't being informed about the potential hazards of the vaccines being used to fight the coronavirus. This physician isn't an anti-vaxxer, he just doesn't feel the public knows about everything.

Fair enough. 

After the doctor made his statement, it was followed up with a question. But it didn't come from Patrone. It was from Alex Pierson, who clearly had the guy on her show on GNR640 at some point in the past. No credit was given. It appears it was just lifted from the competition and used, before moving on with no explanation of the source. 

This is all part of a growing trend I've noticed recently. When I started in radio news a long time ago, we were told under no circumstances do you lift anything from another station. You can quote something. You just can't play it on your airwaves. (I recall we were given permission to lift clips from CTV's Question Period, but you had to make sure you noted the source in the copy before throwing to it.)

But over the years, the exception seems to have become the rule. It's always been OK to show 30 secs. of sports highlights from the competition with credit. But now I frequently hear many news/talk stations airing someone else's work, without any consequence and often without reference to its origin. NBC airs clips from ABC's Sunday morning shows and vice versa. CNN runs Fox News snippets, while Fox often runs their competitor's interviews. (To be fair, in those cases, they run an on-screen super.)

When, exactly, did those rules change? Will CKNT face any repercussions from Corus for doing this or is the Mississauga station simply too unimportant to bother with lawyers and legal costs or official complaints?

Either way, if exclusivity isn't dead, it's certainly on life support. Maybe Alex Pierson can do an interview on that.

And if you miss it, tune into Sauga960 to hear the replay...