It was due to the stilted nature of your first NF apology that I dared lecture you on artistic virtue. If I’m “taken” with anything, it’s excellence.

But glad you want to get us back to work and that your second “sorry” was sincere.

“truth to power” - ooh, got those writer’s juices going, don’t you, never heard that turn of phrase before.

My apology to Ms. Finke was sincere; your opinion of it or of me is of no consequence whatsoever. I reiterate the apology and hope that the strike negotiators are a little less taken with themselves than Coopered so that the strike can be settled and people of true talent can go back to work quickly.

Here is Big Media’s strategy:

Resume negotiations
Find a reason to break off negotiations - and blame writers.

Resume negotiations
Find a reason to break … etc.

The purpose of this is to psychologically exhaust writers, so that eventually (and according to Big Media’s predetermined self-serving timeline)when Big Media is ready to settle, writers will be so exhausted from the ups and downs, they will start turning on each other to “just end it,” and they will settle for what the studios were willing to offer to begin with.

This is said to caution writers to be extremely even-minded about news of negotiations. No giddiness. Take everything in stride for the LONG haul and stay on point.

It has been the power of REPORTING that has advanced the writers cause. It’s been tough enough getting the truth out and rallying support with Big Media controlling traditional news, publications, etc

The reporting of events on this blog has been instrumental to this strike

If things are kept in a vacuum, there will be no satisfying resolution.

KEEP REPORTING, NIKKI. As the expression goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Many thanks to your mommy for making you write the apology letter, but you still missed something essential about NF’s column… it is brave to tell the truth to power. Writers intuitively understand this type of courage so perhaps that is the “bias” (if one calls a shared virtue a “bias”) that NF may or may not have with writers and the WGA. It has been brave of NF to take on everything she has taken on since i”ve read her… the LATimes, NYT, HR, Variety, the Pelicano case, on and on and on and on. This column is like “heroin” to people because it is so rarified to see so much truth spilled on the page w/out PR. Thanks again Nikki for the excellence.

returning to talks is just good PR for them. they would do it even if they had no plans of yielding on any point.

————–

My thoughts too.

C’mon people. Are these agents fighting for the cause of writers or fighting for their incomes? No writing means no new episodes or feature projects. Not just for their writer clients, but for their actor and director clients as well. What is the one thing agents hate? Not making money.

And for those who think this is probably a ploy to get showrunners and actors back to work, you haven’t been paying attention. Many, if not most, of the showrunners were quietly providing their producing services. And with a very few notable exceptions, actors continued to show up to work. The thespians took to the picket lines before their call times or after they were wrapped.

The power of a writers strike is — guess what — NO WRITING. While these talks resume, there will be no writing going on. If the AMPTP torpedos the talks, they are stuck in the same situation. No new episodes for scripted TV, no feature drafts delivered and the clock continues to tick down on a pilot season about to blow up into a million pieces.

and if you think about it the amptp has HUGE incentive to go back into talks even if they have NO intention of making a deal.

– there was talk of the showrunners going back to work if the producers would go back to negotiations;

– as someone above me said, the late night hosts are likely to soften their stance if “talks are in progress”

– even the a-list actors who walking off sets could stop.

the thing to remember is that its easy for people to rally against a refusal to even negotiate.

but once the amptp starts going through the motions of looking “reasonable” suddenly a lot of our ancillary support will soften… and the heat will come off them quite a bit.

returning to talks is just good PR for them. they would do it even if they had no plans of yielding on any point.

Look forward to hearing more about the UTA of it.