A response to Will ("not a power grab") Weg -

I just don't see why the animation/reality writers jurisdiction can't be dealt with at a later time, so the WGA and the AMPTP can get back to the bargaining table, work out a new residual plan which both groups can tolerate, and end the strike, so that the below-the-line people can get back to work.

I used to be part of a union when I worked in warehouse at a retail store ten years ago. We were a pretty acquiescent bunch. When our contract expired and had to be renewed, we didn't ask for much beyond modest cost-of-living salary improvements.

I was asked if I was interested in being shop steward for my department but turned down the offer. The guy who was our shop steward got himself fired for reasons possibly related to his strident politics and personality (he was active in the International Socialist Organization, and fond of Trotsky)

The rhetoric I hear from the WGA leaders reminds me of my old, doomed shop steward, who would remind us of all the aspects of social justuce (like the 8 hour day) accomplished by the labor movement in the Progressive Era. WGA guys are very fond of using words like "solidarity" and name-checking leaders of the radical movements like the IWW (David Letterman's "Eugene V. Debs" dancing WGA girls)

But I think what annoys me most about Verrone and these WGA leaders is thier inability to appreciate that WGA writers are, compared to most American workers, very well-educated, well-compensated people. When I read your letter saying that the WGA won't take animation jurisdiction off the table because that would leave "creative people in the cold" I wondered why it didn't seem to matter to you that a lot of creative people (like IATSE computer graphics artists) ARE being left out in the cold by this strike!

I think there's some cognitive dissonance in the way that the WGA believes that thier "creativity" should not be "left in the cold" but they have no problem leaving non-writing staff "in the cold" - perhaps because those BTL people aren't "creative".

I just find the Guild Leaders's combination of elitist self-regard (they're determined to show how irreplaceable they are by striking) and pseudo-leftist rhetoric (Arlo Guthrie-quoting Michael Winship standing up to the greedy, clueless suits of the AMPTP.) really infuriating.

To clarify the matter of Animation and Reality unionization, the current situation is that writers in both fields have ASKED to join the WGA and been rebuffed by their employers. Nickelodeon actually fired two dozen of their established cartoon writers for daring to seek the benefits (residuals, pension, health, credits) established for writers covered by the Guild.

The WGA is not demanding to drag anyone kicking and screaming into Guild control, but is trying to break the wall set up by the studios prohibiting these unprotected writers from seeking union protection. The writers themselves would be given a chance to vote whether to join the union or not. If it was really such an unpopular choice among those writers, you'd think the studios would be happy to prove how unwanted the WGA was in those groups. As it is, they are more nervous that even more writers would be empowered to ask for fair rights. To arbitrarily withdraw this request from the bargaining table, as the AMPTP demands, would be to leave a lot of creative people in the cold.

With only horrible reality television on the air anymore, Colbert and Stewart are a breath of fresh air.

Personally, my girlfriend and I have stopped watching any written program, only reality television and DVDs/Movies which finished production prior to the strike, and no TV on DVD or Itunes. Why? Because, I am a student going to school for this.

I want to be a screenwriter, and by doing this I believe we are helping the cause in a exostential sort of way.

I feel Stewart and Colbert are doing their best, they have saved a lot of people their jobs by returning to work. As well as honored their contracts to AFTRA and SAG and by doing so the two of them are able to convey the message of what the Writers Guild is striking for. I have done a lot of research on this subject, but Colbert and Stewart are getting the information to the masses.

I say go Colbert and go Stewart, you guys are doing some leg work for the lines you crossed.

Remember when hockey was just hanging on to the popular culture by a string? Then, the owners cut the string by locking out the players. Even crazed hockey fans like us in New England learned, painfully, that we could live without (gasp!) hockey. Now, for all of you non-crazed hockey fans, when was the last time you ever HEARD about hockey?

So it goes with the Networks. With all the other entertainment options available to us, do they really want us all to realize how little we NEED network TV? Isn't this part of the problem, that with the internet and other screen time activities (video gaming, etc.) vying for our attention, the Networks are down from their place of prominence just a few short years ago? So, the producers decide to prove their irrelevance with stupid reality and game shows. Don't they know they were ALREADY, BEFORE THE STRIKE, the bargain basement of entertainment?

With Netflix, Tivocasts, and books, who needs these knuckleheads anyway?

I hope the strike is settled soon, it would be a shame for the Networks to turn themselves into the NHL. Of course, they may already have done that!

That's immaterial in this instance.

They aren't working under their WGA contracts -- the writers guild is on strike.

They're being held to their SAG or AFTRA contracts. SAG and AFTRA aren't on strike.

And Viacom could live just fine without Comedy Central. They would barely take a hit and recover by the next quarter if it disappeared completely (nevermind if it just became lame).