On Strike
Guess, what, Bastion readers? We're feeling a little revolutionary. We're showing solidarity with our fellow writers and refusing to blog until the WGA strike is resolved, or until our publisher yells at us, whichever comes first. Want to know what the writers' strike is all about? It's about technology changing and us getting our media from new places. Well, why read when you could click this clever little video?
Basically, writers want to be paid for what they write, and get a reasonable share of the profit every time their work is viewed, whether that's on television, on a movie screen, on a DVD, or in an online clip. As it stands now, they are paid a tiny amount for DVD sales (the result of a 1988 agreement that was supposed to have been amended shortly thereafter) and NOTHING for online content. That means if you watch The Office or 30 Rock exclusively online (and we know people who do), the writers get none of the share of the beef jerky ads you watch online between show segments.
New media is here. Television is changing, if not dying. Writers deserve to be paid for their work. Hence: STRIKE!
David Letterman sides with the writers, and Jay Leno has joined writers on the picket line. According to an article today in Reuters.com, Seth Meyers and Tina Fey may become the key faces of this strike, much like Letterman 20 years ago, and help viewers to understand the issues at hand.
An interesting thread on the strike on the AST board, featuring comments from several showbiz writers.
Have thoughts? Do you support the writers? Worry about missing some valuable boob tube watching? Think this whole internet thing is a fad? Let 'er rip in the comments section.
Comments
Fuck yea! Go WGA!
Discussion on AST -
http://aspecialthing.com/smf/index.php?topic=8363.0
Discussion on IRC -
http://www.improvresourcecenter.com/mb/showthread.php?t=55822
Video of the writer/actor/producers of The Office on the picket line -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6hqP0c0_gw
Posted by: Dan Telfer | November 7, 2007 12:27 PM
How will this affect The Hills?
Posted by: fritz | November 7, 2007 12:45 PM
We're all going to have to be strong together, Fritzie. Lack of Lauren Conrad's heavily scripted romances or not, we have to exercise the sheer power of our numbers!
Posted by: Elizabeth McQuern | November 7, 2007 1:59 PM
Umm... while I'm very much in support of the strike, in this role, you and I are journalists and are not covered by the Writer's Guild of America. To my knowledge, we also do not have any involvement with the negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers and we should go about conducting business as usual. The strike is probably going to last a long time.
Since we are online and deal with live comedy and real people, if you feel strongly about the strike, the best thing you can do is to write about it and uncover how it affects the people around you.
Shutting down communication doesn't resolve anything.
Posted by: Nate | November 8, 2007 2:48 PM
hi nate! for the record, i mused upon the validity of entertainment blogs/writers (bloggers/journalists, esp. online) standing in solidarity w/ creatives in the business, in an effort to further push the subject and effectively show what a strike could truly mean -- a world w/out creative writing and communicative writing is a bleak one, indeed.
it's an empathy strike, and it's already been noticed and linked in our community. we're not in NY or LA, so these kinds of issues don't affect us as directly -- however, the strike has gotten people locally talking about what it means to their futures in the industry, even though they are not governed by a union. some have wondered if they could sell their work now and what the ramifications might be.
discussion here in chicago is a little different, i'm assuming, than on the coasts. and, we'll be wrapping up what we find in next week's postings. while i agree that we cannot shut down communication, sometimes by ceasing work, you can emphasize more effectively the work you've been doing.
i have commie blood in me. that being said, please don't fire us. who will speak for the bloggers of the world!?
Posted by: k-rock | November 8, 2007 5:18 PM