Sunday, February 8, 2009

exlusive:word usage

Exclusive: a piece of news, or the reporting of a piece of news, obtained by a newspaper or other news organization, along with the privilege of using it first.

All day long I hear on the news, "join us for our exclusive interview with ________ tomorrow evening". The thing is, every network says the same thing. Rachel Maddow made fun of herself last week, saying she had an exclusive interview with Rod Blagoyevich, adding, the she was the only person on her network at that time slot to host the interview, making light of the fact that there wasn't a soul he wasn't willing to talk with. What I'm getting at is, the word exclusive prompts me to wonder if this term isn't overused. Katie Couric is hosting an exclusive interview with the pilot that landed in the Hudson weeks ago, but wait, wasn't Larry King the first person to interview him, like over two weeks ago? Please clarify, oh holy media.

What's with this exclusivity. Networks want you to think they have the only word, even though it has already been broadcast all over the place all week. I'm not challenging the media or anything, I just wish they'd stop exploiting the English language for their express purposes.

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