A New Definition of “Exclusive”

An e-mailer writes to TVNewser:

“Fox used the word “exclusive” to describe Chris Wallace‘s interview last Sunday with Rudy Giuliani. Sean Hannity‘s upcoming interview with Giuliani this Sunday is also being billed as an “exclusive.” Two “exclusives” with the same guy in one week doesn’t sound very “special” to me.

And it’s not just Fox. ABC claimed an “exclusive” last week with Barack Obama. NBC also used the term to describe their sit-down interview with John McCain… “Exclusive” should be reserved for the hard to get “get,” like Mike Wallace sitting down with Ahmadinejad, or Ann Curry’s recent interview with the president of Sudan. I guess the new meaning of “exclusive” is that the interview took place in our building, with our reporter, in front of our cameras, and no other media were invited. It’s what we used to call an interview, as opposed to a news conference.”