I haven’t followed the WGA strike as closely as I like, but this video, which is causing a small stir, says it all. The media companies want to squeeze every penny from as many eyeballs as possible, yet little, if any, will be returned to the brains behind the content. It’s an old story and one of the reasons I quit the journalism biz. The contracts were becoming far too one-sided and nefarious. The truth is, media companies in general view the writers as contract workers who have no ownership or right to the product that is the source for the company’s profit. The industry is basically a glorified factory business that manufactures fantassy. For this I am so happy the writers have some spine.
For snarky (and entertaining) updates on the strike situation, go here.
I would be more sympathetic if there were actual quality involved in the writer’s product. Now, I certainly understand that it is grossly unfair of me to brand all screen writer’s output as drek.
But drek is what the average media consumer is getting, and I think it is too much to expect sympathy from them.
It seems to me that the real quality writing is reserved for media that is designed to be manipulative (news, editorial, so-called tv magazines), while entertainment gets the dregs and the leftovers.
Am I wrong?
Maybe it would be enlightening for American media consumers to see their media heroes and heroines left to their own devices!
I agree that most programming that actually gets produced is crap, but that’s because most producers are MBAs and not fans. Still, sometimes a good product sneaks through, like Battlestar Galactica. Regardless, it’s a matter of principle that the industry gets called on their hypocrisy. Why is there a double standard for the digital world? It’s about tome the creatives who generate all the ideas get fully compensated for their work. CEOs have little to complain about. They make astronomical amounts of money off other people’s labor, even it’s crap they are making.