alexxkay: (Default)
[personal profile] alexxkay
So yesterday, in a futile attempt to banish the earworm that is the Portal End Credits, I tried replacing it with another JoCo earworm: Re: Your Brains. As it percolated through my brain, it struck me that the point of view expressed by the zombie in the song was reminding me of The Management in the current writer's strike in Hollywood, particularly in the peculiar redefinition of such words as "reasonable" and "compromise":
All we wanna do is eat your brains
We're not unreasonable,
I mean no-one's gonna eat your eyes
All we wanna do is eat your brains
We're at an impasse here,
Maybe we should compromise.
If you open up the door,
We'll all come inside and eat your brains.
Management wants to take away residuals from things like DVDs, which is perfectly "reasonable", since they're leaving residuals for traditional broadcast television intact. Never mind that broadcast television is dying. Meanwhile, the writers want a piece of the quick-growing pie called "New Media" such as the Internet. Management doesn't want to give them one. Management has proposed a "compromise" by which they study the question for three or six years -- in the meanwhile, continuing to not pay the writers anything in these areas.

Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. That's exactly the same "logic" that President Bush has been getting away with for years now. Only apparently the WGA has more intelligence and courage than Congress, and isn't standing for it.

Y'know, I used to think that one President was much like another. That's been beaten out of me. For one thing, I've seen studies showing that, at all levels of society, the ethics of a leader figure strongly influence all those beneath him. For example, under Nixon, white collar crime went way up. Now, after so many years of a President whose greed is practically unparalleled, whose idea of compromise is "shut up and do what I say", and whose ability to even *understand* his opponents is so small -- is it any wonder that the Hollywood Producers are acting the way they are?

Some of the writers are wondering why Management is acting so irrationally. Surely they *know* that this can't end well, that they are facing united opposition that will never yield on the important points. But refusing to face such realities is how Role Model Number One in the White House does things, so they're doing it too.

I'm starting to think that this will be a very long strike...

(no subject)

Date: 2007-11-13 06:03 pm (UTC)
pryder: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pryder
Broadcasters are behaving much the same way publishers are these days. They are treating their business as a sunset industry: maximize profits now and cash out, because there is no future. If they win and the writers get nothing, they make more money. If a long strike kills off scripted television shows, along with those pesky expensive writers and actors, they make more money; they'll just fill the airwaves with cheap game shows and reality shows. The model isn't sustainable in the long run, but they don't care.

Stupid arguments

Date: 2007-11-13 07:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] metageek.livejournal.com
What I love is the argument "there's no money online yet, so we can't afford to pay you anything". Duh—that's what percentages are for. The writers shouldn't settle for anything less than a fixed percentage of the studio's gross revenue, regardless of medium. It's not like any new medium is going to have more overhead than VHS.

Re: Stupid arguments

Date: 2007-11-13 08:29 pm (UTC)
ext_104661: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alexx-kay.livejournal.com
Regarding "no money online yet", I ran into this informative YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a37uqd5vTw&eurl=http://www.newsfromme.com/) today.

Re: Stupid arguments

Date: 2007-11-13 09:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] freerange-snark.livejournal.com
This is also good. Obviously it's biased since it's put out by the WGA, but... they don't really have to do anything to make the execs look bad.

Re: Stupid arguments

Date: 2007-11-13 10:16 pm (UTC)
ext_104661: (Default)
From: [identity profile] alexx-kay.livejournal.com
"Every day after picketing, I come home and work on my long, elegant essay articulating why we're on strike. It's meant for the general public and attempts to summarize the issues. But today, I overheard something that took care of my essay in one fell swoop.

Guy (into cell phone): The writers are on strike out here.

[PAUSE]

Guy (into cell phone): Because the corporations are dicks.

I don't need to finish my essay. Instead, I can rest up for picketing tomorrow.

-Irving Belateche
(http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2007/11/10/162147/00)

Re: Stupid arguments

Date: 2007-11-13 11:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] freerange-snark.livejournal.com
*snerk* Yup, that sounds about right.

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Alexx Kay

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