Is The Strike Big Media's Untold Story?

22 Comments »

1. 2:32am? Glad to see you’re still up, Nikki. I thought I was all alone out here.

   Comment by John Aboud — November 9, 2007 @ 2:55 am

2. Local news in NYC only covers the strike to mention what celebrities are on the picket line. Celebrity actors not writers. Writers aren’t sexy. Writers are intellectuals and those are only worshipped in France.

   Comment by Mla28 — November 9, 2007 @ 3:19 am

3. It goes to show that even with a writer’s strike that writer’s still get no respect. It’s sad really.

   Comment by John — November 9, 2007 @ 3:31 am

4. For God’s sake! WGA hire publicists. Get THE BEST FLACKS IN TOWN and have them set up media frenzies. Get Lindsay Lohan walking the picket line. Offer $100,000 for the person who finds the writing staff of “The Office” who have been hidden somewhere in the continental United States. Get the Playboy Girls Next Door to visit. Do everything you can to turn the picket lines into a media circus, ten hours a day (with scheduled appearances). Offer twelve hours of free consultation by the staff of “The Daily Show” to the first Presidential Candidate who shows up. Offer the remaining Beatles 10 dollars to walk the line. Get famous singers to give impromtu performances.

   The studios own the networks and the affiliates are towing the studio line until you make it too delicious to resist.

   Do a big rally for the public, offer the broadcast rights for free to independent channels and radio stations.

   We’re the WGA damnit, get creative!!!!!!

   Comment by anotherWGAmember — November 9, 2007 @ 3:54 am

5. What I find interesting is that CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, the one that claims to be “TV’s most provocative entertainment show” and pretends to be focused on the journalism, couldn’t be bothered to report on the strike until Wednesday night. There were no stories Monday or Tuesday night. I have no idea what made them finally drag themselves away from their Britney reports and Heather Mills bashing to finally acknowledge it midweek.

   Comment by Susanne — November 9, 2007 @ 3:57 am

6. Again, I will say this.

   The PR war is not the point. The only thing the PR war affects is how all of us feel about what we are doing.

   Winning the PR war might make us FEEL better, but it has very little to do with winning the battle.

   The key to this entire strike is simple: either we can cause enough FINANCIAL hardship to the studios with a strike or we can’t.

   This is the key to getting what we want. We could be media heroes. The studios can be vilified to kingdom come. But until we hit them where it hurts (their wallet) we won’t see progress.

   It really is that simple. And all the noise-making, car honking and name-calling ain’t going to change that.

   Comment by ROBD — November 9, 2007 @ 4:48 am

7. The 5 pm show on the new Fox Business Network - Happy Hour - has covered the strike for a few days mostly by interviewing writers. Takes it on more from a business point of view but it seems fair and sympathetic to the writers - maybe instead of the picket line they should pack the Bull and Bear Bar at the Waldorf @ 5 PM est.

   Comment by linton43 — November 9, 2007 @ 5:07 am

8. The idea of the publicity war is to get the vast American audience on our sides. It’s going to take the threat of a public backlash or boycott to get the studios to reconsider their stonewalling. Their pockets are very, very deep (and they have all sorts of insurance) but if their income whithers or the stockholders get p**sed, then they’ll listen.

   Comment by anotherWGAmember — November 9, 2007 @ 5:41 am

9. To Mla28:

   “Writers are intellectuals and those are only worshipped in France.”

   Well, er… When was your last visit in France? To put it in the manner of the great Chevy Chase on SNL: “In France, Jean-Paul Sartre is still dead.”

   Comment by Thierry Attard — November 9, 2007 @ 6:37 am

10. regarding getting the public involved:

    inevitably it will happen when outside industries become economically affected - however, it would be best to prevent that.

    unfortunately, people don’t take up for others’ causes unless it impacts them in some way - whether out of self-interest, or simply there aren’t enough hours in the day

    people love to be entertained and to be part of something bigger. use the resources you have - writers, actors and make the picket line entertaining. video it, spread it across the internet. people will watch - there’s not much to watch on tv, after all. the media will have to cover it. delicious irony. but please keep it highbrow, fun, funny, thoughtful a la jon stewart. no playboy girls, etc as was suggested.

    Comment by Anonymous — November 9, 2007 @ 7:53 am

11. sorry, forgot the email

    Mla28 is right - it’s a weird phenomenon how actors are worshipped, writers not. Luckily, not everyone worships actors. I’d have dinner with Aaron Sorkin over any Hollywood hottie. I’ve dined with Hollywood hotties, so trust me.

    Comment by Aaronpleasecall — November 9, 2007 @ 8:04 am

12. ROBD, this is why no one cares about writers, you don’t know that you need PUBLICITY to hit the studios where it hurts…PUBLIC BACKLASH.

    There is a groundswell of support out there if you get the message out to the masses. With scandals such as ENRON and WorldCom, and oil profiteers and Halliburton, many Americans are getting fed up with the corporate greed and the consistent dissing of the middle class.

    When Tom Freston gets as much in a gold parachute as the writers are asking for in resids, you don’t think the general public can sympathize with that?

    anotherWGAmember is right! Get the PR machines going, organize the showrunners to create an online network (tell me Proctor and Gamble wouldn’t sponsor something from the creators of LOST), and take the fight to the studios/networks.

    Comment by Agentatanotheragency — November 9, 2007 @ 10:49 am

13. Why are the media not reporting on the devastating ramifications of this strike? Why can’t they do stories on all the people affected? Talk to crew people who are now out of work. Analyze the economic impact it will have on this city. Talk to TV and movie viewers and see how they feel. Why is it just a celebrity rundown of who’s on the picket line? At the end of the day, it’s not about that. Seeing the celebrities makes it just seem like a sexy issue. It’s not. It’s a terrible travesty for the city and anyone who doesn’t think so has their head in the sand. I understand that the celebrities are part of the story, but there are other people involved as well. They would gain more public sympathy than people who are paid tons of money for what they do.

    Comment by Depressing — November 9, 2007 @ 12:13 pm

14. Yeah, they’ll start covering it when it has more of an effect on the rest of the country, which it will if a deal isn’t done. Although, local news should be all over it…

    Comment by Brian Laesch — November 9, 2007 @ 1:04 pm

15. George Penacchio is too busy squeezing into those ridiculous vests to report on the strike.

    Comment by One Time Sitcom Writer — November 9, 2007 @ 1:54 pm

16. If KABC is a Disney-owned station, it shouldn’t be surprising that GP throwing wet kisses to DANCING WITH THE STARS will get more airtime than the WGA strike.

    Comment by Terry McCartyTT — November 9, 2007 @ 2:35 pm

17. agentatanotheragency–

    i think you are just wrong that public backlash is what hurts the studios. i think its naive to think that the public is going to care that much about the two sides…

    and even more naive to think EVEN if they did care that it would make any difference.

    you aren’t going to get them to stop watching American Idol because of this. you just aren’t.

    our power is SIMPLE:

    it is our ability to remove profit generating content from the airwaves.

    this is the key to the war. make the studios feel it at the upfronts and they’ll find a way to make a deal.

    Comment by robd — November 9, 2007 @ 2:37 pm

18. There is a very simple reason why the media is barely covering this. Outside of Hollywood, no one cares. It’s probably a blow to a lot of egos out there on both sides but this strike is totally irrevelant to the lifes of the majority of the country. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

    The only strikes that have ever been successful worked because the public finally sided with the strikers. That’s not going to happen this time because for the past 20+ years Hollywood has been going out of its way to let mainstream America know how much it hates it. This attitude is on full display in many of these threads. You’re reaping what you sowed; you told the public you hated them, and they’re returning the favor.

    Comment by Reportsforaliving — November 9, 2007 @ 3:18 pm

19. I’m in New York as well and I have barely heard blip about the writers strike on the television. The only way I can get info about it is on here. But what do you expect when the same companies that own the studios own the networks and thus don’t want to draw attention to any of this?

    Comment by Non WGA Writer — November 9, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

20. The reason why there’s such little coverage is because WGA-ABC news writers in New York and DC and WGA-CBS news writers in New York, DC, LA and Chicago have been working without contracts for over two years and are also threatening to strike. Their contracts are separate from this WGA contract, but these particular networks in these particular markets are heavily involved in abuse to their news writers and haven’t even been to the negotiating table for almost a year. The news writers haven’t had a pay raise in almost 3 years and the networks are trying to force a merge of newsrooms and push the news writers out by forcing the WGA to allow them to hire non-union producers to write the news. I support the entertainment writers, but this issue with the news writers is devastating.

    Comment by Concerned — November 9, 2007 @ 5:21 pm

21. I think you’re on to something regarding their lack of coverage of the strike. In my humble opinion, it all goes back to the bottom-line…if extensive coverage of the strike is going to hurt their image (expose the fact that they’re underpaying, for instance), it would obviously negatively impact their bottom-line and of course they’re not going to cover it. That’s funny you noticed that they covered Dancing with the Stars for 7 minutes! I can’t even watch the show itself for that long - much less watch a news story. (:

    Comment by Sure Fire — November 9, 2007 @ 5:30 pm

22. robd

    Have you’ve been to any fansites out there? Most of the fans out there are behind the writers, they are organizing letter writings and a host of other things. To say the public, meaning me, doesn’t care is like a slap in the face. You would be amazed at the length fans will go to support the people behing their favorite shows. I’m sure CBS has some leftover peanuts if you doubt the power the “public” has and what they can do.

    Am I upset that pretty soon I will have nothing to watch, hell yeah, but I will get over it pretty fast I have plenty of books to read! Just know, this fan is behind the writers.

    Comment by TVfan — November 9, 2007 @ 6:02 pm

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