Strike update: Checking in with the picketers

A couple of updates from the front lines for you.

From the Boston Herald:

With savings dwindling, TV and film writers picket in NYC
By Associated Press
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 – Added 30m ago

NEW YORK – Facing dwindling savings accounts, striking television and film writers returned to the picket line on Wednesday, saying they’re eager to get back to work but determined to tough it out until their demands are met.

As the walkout stretched into its 10th week, hundreds gathered in front of the offices of Viacom Inc., including some writers who have seen their shows return to the air without them. One protester’s sign urged the media conglomerate, which owns Comedy Central, to “Do the Write Thing.”

Jay Katsir, a 26-year-old writer for “The Colbert Report,” would not talk about the show, which resumed broadcasting an unscripted version on Monday, saying only: “We need to keep our focus on production companies and getting everybody back at work.”

. . .

Katsir, the “Colbert” writer, said he was starting to feel the financial pressure.

With a glance at a nearby restaurant, and offering no hint of whether he was joking, he added: “I might look into Bubba Gump Shrimp.”

Full article available here

Multichannel News also reported on today’s picket:

WGA Stages First Major N.Y. Demonstration In 2008
More Than 300 Writers Picket Viacom’s Times Square Headquarters
By Linda Moss — Multichannel News, 1/9/2008 2:28:00 PM

The Writers Guild of America Wednesday held its first “large-scale” picket in New York City in 2008, with more than 300 strikers outside Viacom’s headquarters in Times Square on an unusually warm winter day.

The picket line included members of the writing staffs of the New York-based late-night shows – Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report – which have gone back on the air without their writers.

In a show of solidarity with the scribes still on strike, the writers of The Late Show With David Letterman – a show that’s reached a deal with the WGA — still took part in the picket, represented on the picket line today by strike captain Bill Scheft, who spent the entire day picketing with fellow WGA East writers.

The Late Show With David Letterman writers also provided lunch to the picketers, as did The Colbert Report, which sent pizzas to the line.

. . .

Read the full article here

The mention of the Letterman writers above reminded me that I’ve neglected to include a story on the writers from Craig Ferguson’s show for too long now. Remember how Dave’s writers had pledged a portion of their salaries to the Strike Fund (WGAE here, WGAW here) and Actors Fund until the strike ends? Writers from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson have done the same. Bravo to you all; your generosity is truly commendable.