
 |
|
May 20, 2013
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 11, 2007
/ 2 Teves 5768
Writers wield pen, new sword
By
Clarence Page
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
As one who writes for a living, I find it gratifying that almost two-thirds of the public says they support the writers strike. Thanks, America. We humble scriveners salute you.
If you have not heard about the strike, here's why Jay Leno and David Letterman have been telling jokes about President Bush that sound six months old:
The TV and movie writers, represented by the Writers Guild of America, walked out in early November. The move by the 12,000-member union shut down the production of more than a dozen sitcoms and almost all late-night entertainment shows.
Recent polls by Pepperdine University, Fox News, SurveyUSA and the show business newspaper Variety showed widespread public support for the writers. At a time when organized labor seems to be flat on its back, that sounds like a blow for old-style, industrial-age solidarity with what the entertainment industry calls the "creative" types.
Or maybe it's a backlash against the corporate bigwigs and their obviously low regard for good writing.
Gone are the days when Hollywood lured literary giants like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker or William Faulkner to give the place a little class. With notable exceptions like HBO's "The Wire" or NBC's "30 Rock" (which satirizes its own employer), writers are the Rodney Dangerfields of the TV and movie industries. They get no respect. The rest of us walk out of theaters, for example, wondering why some more of the big money that we see up on the screen wasn't spent on developing better scripts.
"In television, you are one of two things, either a beggar or a chooser," the late NBC programming genius Brandon Tartikoff once said. "If you want to create, you are by definition a beggar." I learned a taste of that during my own brief spell in a network-owned TV news shop in Chicago. There were certain unions that struck terror into the hearts of TV management. The Writers Guild was not one of them. Still isn't.
This year's strike, the guild's first since its five-month walkout in 1988, is an effort to stop begging and start demanding. What's interesting is how effectively the guild has harnessed the power of the new media, which lies at the heart of the dispute with the networks and big media giants, particularly the Internet.
Many issues are on the table, but both sides reached an impasse over a new demand. The writers want a slice, just a tiny 2.5 percent of the money that media conglomerates are making from re-use of their material on the Internet, smart phones, iTunes, movie downloads and other viewing. They also want a share of DVD sale profits that's larger than the 0.36 percent for which they settled in 1988, when home videotape was a new thing.
The media companies claim they can't negotiate a share of Internet profits because they have no idea how much this new technology will earn. Yet, even we home viewers know that they must be earning something, judging by the ads that pop up on the TV networks' heavily promoted Web sites.
That's where the writers have given a new spin to this strike by doing what they do best: writing. They've written and produced dozens of clever videos to boil down the complicated strike issues into terms that even dimwits like me can understand.
Then they post them on YouTube, among other Web sites. Three of the best are titled "Voices of Uncertainty," "Why We Fight" and "Not the Daily Show, with Some Writer." That last one is produced by striking writers from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."
Each is highlighted by sound-bites from major media corporate heads, like Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. and Sumner Redstone of Viacom, boasting to investors and others about the billions of dollars per year that digital technology is beginning to bring in. In what "Daily Show" writers call a "moment of Zen," Redstone declares, "Getting paid is the name of the game." You said it, Sumner.
There's nothing new about bosses pleading poverty to their workers while boasting to investors about how much their companies are rolling in dough. What's new is the ability of strikers to show both faces of their employers to the world via the Web.
It appears to be having an effect. Negotiators for the media conglomerates last week announced they were hiring a team of highly paid spin doctors to polish up their public image. Most of us viewers would settle for a few more shows that didn't insult our intelligence.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on Clarence Page's column by clicking here.
Archives
© 2007, TMS
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|