Hey, Writers, Remember the Baseball Strike?
Posted on November 14, 2007 - Filed Under Rants, Consumerism, Current Events, Writing/Editing |
I admit it, this whole Writer’s Guild strike rubs me the wrong way. Everything about it just reeks of privilege and sour grapes on both sides. Don’t get me wrong, I get the whole capitalism thing, and I get the need to stand up for your rights about what’s fair, but maybe the request for more money from the writer’s isn’t the solution, maybe a new business model to compensate for the new medias is what the doctor ordered. It seems as though the studio executives are afraid to make a deal with the writers out of fear of sharing the wealth. The execs are unsure of how much more money this new media is going to bring in and they are unsure about how much they want to “give away.” Whereas at the same time, the television and movie writers seem to have this “i’m just the little guy” image in the industry and I think everyone needs to get a grip. Jay Leno is bringing donuts to the famished writers at the picket line. Really? Ray Romano is walking the picket line. Why? Is he even currently on a show?
Our society operates in a free market system. If the compensation for the writer’s work really does not match the labor involved, then people wouldn’t take the risk to enter the market. I would love to freelance full-time, but I can only freelance as the market allows me to, so I have another job to supplement my income. I agree that the writer’s should have a piece of the sales for repurposed materials like downloads, and that they should also be able to strike for fair working condition when they need to, but this industry as a whole is one big Mr. Monopoly shoving money down his gullet, that I have a hard time sympathizing with anyone wanting more money in this already wealthy industry. Not to mention that this supply and demand for these writer’s is fueled by Americans watching television and this wad of cash made through advertising goes to pay all of these actors and writers. I am not questioning the validity of watching some occasional television, but I am suggesting that television and movies have become too important. Remember the baseball strike? More specifically the one in 1994? Players wanting a larger piece of the pie caused the ‘94-’95 baseball season to be halted and all the baseball fans saw was greed. When an agreement was finally reached, the ball clubs had lost so much money that many salaries were reduced anyway and many fans never cared very much about the sport again, myself included.
America’s favorite past time isn’t baseball anymore, it’s television. Maybe if I saw Jay Leno bring donuts the next time the United Auto Workers strike or petition for more money for the engineers whose jobs are being outsourced I’ll give a larger damn about people in the television and movie industry. But until then I still know the writer’s aren’t the little guys, the rest of us watching the shows they write for are the little guys, and they are just the fat pigs that are having problems deciding how to split a mountain of cash.
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