The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / AM640: Whoops, They Did It Again

**Posted by RadioActive** January 29, 2025 6:47 pm

I was listening to Alex Pierson's show on Wednesday, when she took up the story of a local man who had to go to the U.S. to get a life saving operation that cost him $600,000, and which OHIP refused to pay for. This came after he had nine operations by Canadian doctors here, all of whom just made the problem worse.

They used clips from the guy and Pierson and her producer discussed the issue for an entire segment.

The problem? This was a direct lift from the segment Consumer Reporter Pat Foran did on CFTO's 6 PM show the night before. Not once did they give credit to the originating source.

I get it. They represent Global and having to admit this story came from a direct competitor wouldn't look good.

It's one thing to bring up the story and use it as a topic, but to steal the audio with no credit at all is not ethical. And it may even be illegal. They simply stole the entire thing without ever mentioning where it came from.

I've heard this happen before on the Ben Mulroney show, using material from CFTO, again without ever indicating it came from them.

They either need to stop using other broadcasters' audio or admit the source. What they're doing now is just wrong, using another station's work and claiming it as their own. And they probably know better but don't seem to care.

**Posted by paterson1** January 29, 2025 7:10 pm

Is it possible that CFTO/CTV have a reciprocal arrangement with Global? The same thing happened in Vancouver recently when CTV aired material that was from Global. The arrangement could include radio and possibly they have both agreed that credit is not necessary.

I would think that both TSN 1050 and Fan 590 lift audio clips or press conferences that aired on the other sports network. Would they say on TSN radio that the clip was courtesy of Rogers Sports or vise verca? Credit is given on TV for sports but it is easier with a small graphic in the upper corner for a few seconds.

Last edited by paterson1 (January 29, 2025 7:12 pm)

**Posted by newsguy1** January 29, 2025 7:44 pm

In my experience you would always have to get permission from another news source to use their audio, video, copy etc.
The only exception would be if you were quoting the news source and saying something like, "The Globe and Mail reported," or CBC' The National revealed"...
Then you could go on and get your own sources and make the story your own material.
Or better yet, don't publish the story until you could put your own stamp on it and not have to mention the rival service.

**Posted by mace** January 29, 2025 7:51 pm

One thing I have noticed is when TSN and Sportsnet show NHL hilights, both networks show the U.S. feed rather than each others broadcast feed.

**Posted by RadioActive** January 29, 2025 8:16 pm

A very long time ago, when I was working at Newsradio out of CKEY, we were encouraged to record "Question Period" every Sunday morning and take clips from it. But it was mandatory that the copy read "Politician X was appearing on CTV's Question Period" somewhere in the intro. You just could not take it and claim it as your own or let it go uncredited.

And I don't blame them, just like you can't show a clip of some other network's TV show on your television station without some "Courtesy of" credit. You don't have the rights to it, period. But as long as you credit the source, it's generally considered fair use.

AM640 has repeatedly violated this almost sacrosanct rule.

As for the idea that Corus' 640 and Bell's CTV made some sort of deal that defeats that age-old rule, I would find that almost impossible to believe. Even if such a bizarre agreement was worked out, at the very least, they would demand credit.

**Posted by Shorty Wave** January 30, 2025 9:08 am

AM740 gives credit for clips used. I noticed that it is usually CP24/CTV, but never, never City News/Rogers for some reason, sour grapes possibly!