Why bother, really? I've read pages and pages of well-argued, eloquent, reasonable assertions as to the merit and justice of the Writer's Guild struggle.
I sometimes wonder if the writers of these articles, including myself, think the fear of public opinion will sway the studios in any way. I've come to the conclusion early on that it won't. They don't give a crap.
The attitude of the studios is no different than Bush's', uh, oligarchy. Obviously corporate greed isn't new, but I don't ever remember it being so unapologetic. So indifferent. The same mentality that's marginalized health care and education for this country in favor of "Disaster Capitalism" has found an eager student in those that run the studios. And while the majority of voters in America seem happy to "go quietly into this good night", the WGA won't and neither will SAG and AFTRA.
Jesus, it's as if all the rhetoric of the 60s about a fascist state and 'the fat cats' has come home to roost in ways no one could have ever imagined.
My kids see bad news on TV all the time. They overhear me and my husband talking about the war, terrorism, health care, the destruction of the middle class (us). But when we're faced with their anxiety about it, we ameliorate their fears by telling them about 'the power of one.' It just takes one person to make a difference (start a revolution, but we don't say that). At times I even believe it.
Yesterday, at my younger daughter's Book Fair, a fellow actor told me about a guy who was going to SAG to discuss implementing the same digital delivery system the studios use. This conversation came at a time when I was thinking, "if only there was a way to take our product entirely out of the hands of the studios so we weren't dependent on them." Is it too far fetched to think that the three unions (DGS, WGS, SAG, AFTRA) could combine their talents and resources to become their own 'studio' with their own distribution? If everything will be streaming digitally, does it matter what the source is?
Mind you, this concept is coming from the foggy, middle aged, drug abused brain of a performer with no more than a high school education and a very dim understanding of the technology (me).
But, just as I was thinking it, the actor I was speaking to was saying it. So why not? Of course, it does mean that a bunch of creative people have to agree on stuff......yeah..
Maybe not.
Read more about the strike on the Huffington Post's writers' strike page.